The Test of Proficiency in Korean (TOPIK) will shift to a digital system incorporating artificial intelligence starting in 2029. The government plans to build an AI-based system that automatically creates and grades questions, while phasing in a "TOPIK home test" that lets candidates sit the exam from home. It will also toughen its response to cheating and raise penalties, as methods such as impersonation and the use of AI glasses grow more sophisticated.
The Ministry of Education and the National Institute for International Education released the plan to overhaul and expand TOPIK on the 29th. Introduced in 1997, TOPIK is a state-certified Korean language exam used for studying in Korea, obtaining residency status and finding work at home and abroad. The number of test-takers jumped to 566,665 last year from 421,812 in 2023, and reached 564,606 in the first nine months of this year.
The government will draw up the overhaul plan by June next year through a TOPIK reform committee made up of experts in Korean language education, testing and assessment, and AI, with the changes to take effect in 2029. The AI-based system for automatically creating and grading questions is targeted for the same year. The home test will first apply to exams not used for study or residency purposes, then expand in stages.
Test centers will be added at home and abroad to match demand. In Korea, the government will expand centers mainly in the Seoul metropolitan area, while looking for new sites overseas.
The government is also stepping up its response to increasingly sophisticated cheating. The number of people caught cheating reached 606 last year, nearly double the 331 recorded in 2021. Signs of organized collusion have surfaced, including impersonation arranged through social media and the leaking of test papers using time differences between continents, while cheating with devices such as AI glasses and tiny Bluetooth earphones is also rising. In response, the government will write rules on cheating sanctions and follow-up management into the Higher Education Act, and establish a legal basis for universities to cancel admissions or degrees and claw back scholarships from students who used scores obtained through cheating. It will also extend the harshest sanction, previously applied to impersonation, to the leaking of test papers or answers and the forging of identification and documents, lengthening the suspension of eligibility to five years from the current two.
"TOPIK plays a key role in measuring the Korean language skills of overseas talent coming to Korea," Education Minister Choi Kyo-jin said. "We will introduce AI technology and further modernize the administration of the exam to support the wider use of Korean around the world."
