Opening a Private Academy in Korea: Registration, Building, Fire Safety, and Required Documents in 2026
BySangjin Ji, Administrative Attorney3 years of embassy visa practiceLinkedIn
When people decide to open a private academy in Korea, the first thing they often look for is a suitable commercial space.
The location seems good. Students pass by regularly. The classrooms look spacious enough. The deposit and rent are affordable, so they sign the lease and start planning the interior.
Then a problem appears when they apply for academy registration with the local Office of Education.
The building use may not be permitted for an academy. There may be a restricted business in the same building. The premises may be on the third floor or above without the required evacuation structure.
At that point, the issue may no longer be something that can be fixed by submitting one additional document.
The lease has already been signed. Interior construction may already have started. Deposits and construction costs may already be committed.
That is why the order matters when opening a private academy in Korea.
Before business registration, before interior construction, and preferably before signing the lease, you should first confirm whether the premises can legally be registered and operated as an academy.
This issue has become even more relevant in 2026 because amendments to Korea's Act on the Establishment and Operation of Private Teaching Institutes and Extracurricular Lessons will take effect on October 1, 2026, introducing new restrictions on testing and assessment of young children for admission or level placement purposes.
This article explains the main requirements for opening and registering a private academy in Korea, including building use, facility standards, fire safety, required documents, and post-registration obligations.
What legally qualifies as a private academy in Korea?
Under the Act on the Establishment and Operation of Private Teaching Institutes and Extracurricular Lessons and its Enforcement Decree, a private teaching institute generally refers to a facility that:
- provides instruction to 10 or more learners who may receive instruction at the same time;
- provides instruction according to a curriculum lasting 30 days or more;
- teaches knowledge, skills, arts, or similar subjects; or
- provides a learning space for 30 days or more.
An important point is that the classification does not depend only on the current number of registered students.
The law looks at the number of students who can receive instruction at the same time.
A smaller operation may instead qualify as a private tutoring institute, or gyoseupso (교습소).
In principle, a gyoseupso may teach no more than nine students at the same time, although separate limits may apply to certain subjects such as piano instruction.
This distinction matters because the facility and operational requirements are different.
Before signing a lease or planning classrooms, you should first determine whether your business should be structured as a private academy or a smaller tutoring institute.
What happens if you operate an academy without registration?
Academy registration is not optional.
Under Article 6 of the Academy Act, a person who intends to establish and operate a private academy must register it with the competent education authority.
Operating without registration may result in criminal penalties.
Under Article 22 of the Act, operating an academy without the required registration may be punishable by:
up to one year of imprisonment or a fine of up to KRW 10 million.
This means that the following approach can create serious risk:
“I will start with a few students first and register later if the business works.”
A business registration certificate issued by the tax office does not replace academy registration.
Business registration with the tax authority and academy registration with the Office of Education are separate administrative procedures.
What should you check before opening an academy?
The most important issue at the beginning is the premises.
In particular, you should review at least the following:
- permitted building use;
- academy facility requirements;
- restricted or harmful businesses in the same building; and
- fire safety and evacuation requirements.
These issues are particularly important because they can become expensive to correct after a lease has already been signed.
1. Is the building legally permitted to be used as an academy?
For an ordinary offline academy, the first step is to check the building register.
Under the Enforcement Decree of the Building Act, academies are generally classified differently depending on the total floor area used for that purpose in the building.
In broad terms:
- where the total floor area used for the relevant academy purpose is less than 500㎡, it may fall under a Type II neighborhood living facility; and
- larger facilities may need to be classified as an education and research facility.
You should therefore not rely only on statements such as:
“There used to be an academy here.”
or
“The real estate agent said academies are allowed.”
The building register should be checked directly.
Even if an academy operated there previously, the building use may have changed later.
In some situations, the floor area of other academy facilities in the same building may also affect how the premises are classified under building regulations.
If the current use is not appropriate, you will need to determine whether a change of use is legally possible.
That may involve the building owner, building-code requirements, additional construction, and further administrative procedures.
Why this matters before signing the lease
Consider the following example.
You find a commercial space for a supplementary education academy. The location is excellent, so you sign the lease and spend KRW 30 million on interior construction.
Only afterward do you discover during the registration process that the building use is not suitable.
If a change of use is possible, additional time and expense will be required.
If it is not possible, the problem becomes much more serious.
In academy licensing, finding a commercially attractive location is only half the job. You must also confirm that the location can actually be registered for the intended educational use.
2. How much space does an academy need?
Academies are subject to facility standards that vary depending on the type of instruction.
The exact requirements are not completely uniform nationwide.
Specific minimum facility standards are also established by local ordinances.
For example, under Seoul standards, different types of academies are subject to different minimum facility requirements.
Representative examples include:
| Type of Instruction | Example Seoul Facility Standard | | --- | ---: | | Supplementary education | 70㎡ or more | | Foreign-language / internationalization-related instruction | 150㎡ or more | | Music | 60㎡ or more | | Fine arts | 60㎡ or more |
The total usable area is not the only consideration.
Individual classrooms, laboratories, practical training rooms, reading rooms, and other spaces may also be subject to separate requirements.
The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education also provides guidance on the physical structure of classrooms.
For example, a space divided only by temporary partitions or folding doors may not necessarily be recognized as a fully independent classroom for registration purposes.
For that reason, it is generally safer to determine the curriculum and expected number of students first, and then design the interior according to the applicable facility standards.
3. Can an academy operate in the same building as a karaoke room or entertainment business?
This is particularly important for academies that teach school-related subjects.
Article 5 of the Academy Act restricts certain school curriculum academies and tutoring institutes from operating in the same building as businesses that may harm the educational environment.
Examples can include:
- karaoke establishments;
- entertainment drinking establishments;
- certain gaming businesses; and
- certain accommodation or entertainment-related facilities.
However, the existence of such a business in the same building does not always mean that academy registration is automatically impossible.
For larger buildings with a total floor area of 1,650㎡ or more, exceptions may apply depending on the exact spatial relationship between the academy and the restricted business.
Under Seoul education authority guidance, relevant distance standards may include:
- within 20 meters horizontally on the same floor; and
- within 6 meters horizontally on the floor immediately above or below.
This means you need to check not only whether a restricted business exists, but also where it is located in the building.
Whether an exception applies should be reviewed based on the specific building structure and the rules of the competent education authority.
4. Why are stairways so important for academies on the third floor or above?
This is another point that should be checked before signing a lease.
Under Article 34 of the Enforcement Decree of the Building Act, where an academy located on the third floor or above uses a total room floor area of 200㎡ or more for the relevant use, the building may be required to have at least two direct stairways leading to an evacuation floor or directly outside.
An elevator does not substitute for a legally required direct stairway.
For example, suppose you plan to lease a 220㎡ academy space on the fourth floor.
If the building has only one legally compliant direct stairway to ground level, academy registration may become difficult or impossible depending on the exact building configuration.
And this is not always something that can be corrected through interior remodeling.
The stairway is part of the building structure.
If you are considering an academy on the third floor or above, especially around or above the 200㎡ threshold, the evacuation structure should be reviewed before the lease is signed.
5. Does every academy need a fire safety completion certificate?
No.
The fire safety requirements depend on the academy's size, occupancy, and the other uses within the building.
Under the Enforcement Decree of the Special Act on the Safety Control of Publicly Used Establishments, certain academies with an occupancy of 300 persons or more may fall within the scope of publicly used establishments subject to additional fire safety requirements.
Additional review may also be required for academies with an occupancy of 100 to fewer than 300 persons in situations such as:
- an academy and dormitory operating in the same building;
- multiple academies in the same building whose combined occupancy reaches a relevant threshold; or
- an academy operating together with other publicly used establishments.
The documents required by the education authority may also vary according to the academy's area and building conditions.
For example, the Seoul education authority may require fire-safety and electrical-safety documents in certain larger facilities.
For that reason, it is unsafe to assume:
“We have fewer than 300 students, so fire-safety requirements do not matter.”
Fire-safety obligations should be reviewed together with the academy's occupancy, floor area, building use, and other businesses in the building.
What should you check before signing the lease?
Before committing to a commercial lease, it is advisable to verify at least the following:
- What is the current legal use shown on the building register?
- What is the total academy-related floor area in the building?
- Does the intended curriculum satisfy the applicable minimum facility standards?
- If the premises are on the third floor or above, are the direct stairway requirements satisfied?
- For a school curriculum academy, are there any restricted businesses in the same building?
- Does the academy's size or occupancy trigger additional fire-safety requirements?
- Will the leaseholder and the academy founder be the same person or legal entity?
If any of these points are unclear, it is usually better to resolve them before signing the lease or starting construction.
The most expensive academy-registration mistakes often begin not with an incorrect application form, but with leasing a property that cannot satisfy the registration requirements.
How does academy registration work?
The exact procedure may vary slightly depending on the competent education authority, but the general process typically includes:
application submission → document review and background checks → on-site inspection → fire/electrical safety review → approval of registration → issuance of registration certificate
Under Seoul administrative guidance, the statutory processing period for academy registration is generally eight days.
However, this does not mean that every academy can begin operating exactly eight days after filing.
If there are deficiencies in the premises, requests for additional documents, or fire-safety issues, the actual preparation period can be longer.
It is therefore safer to confirm registration feasibility first and then determine the opening date.
What documents are required for academy registration?
The required documents may vary depending on the competent education authority and the applicant's circumstances.
For an individual applicant, documents generally include:
- academy establishment and operation registration application;
- academy operating rules;
- floor plan;
- lease agreement or other evidence of the right to use the premises;
- identification of the founder;
- consent forms required for background or criminal record checks; and
- fire-safety or electrical-safety documents where applicable.
Certain official records, such as the building register, may in some cases be obtained directly by the education authority through administrative information-sharing systems.
Additional documents for a corporation
A corporate applicant may also need documents such as:
- articles of incorporation;
- corporate registry certificate;
- corporate seal certificate;
- board resolution approving establishment of the academy;
- power of attorney and representative identification where applicable.
The corporate purpose stated in the articles of incorporation and the board resolution should be consistent with the academy being established.
It is also advisable to avoid situations where a corporation intends to establish the academy but the lease is signed only in the individual name of the representative without considering the registration structure.
What does the education authority inspect on-site?
Academy registration is not based on paperwork alone.
The competent education authority may conduct an on-site inspection of the premises.
The inspection may include:
- whether the actual layout matches the submitted floor plan;
- whether classrooms and practical training rooms satisfy the required size and structure;
- whether the building use is legally appropriate;
- whether restricted-business rules are satisfied;
- whether fire and evacuation facilities are appropriate; and
- whether toilets and other required facilities are properly installed.
The important question is not whether the interior looks attractive.
It is whether the layout satisfies the registration requirements.
For example, dividing a large room into several small classrooms with unsuitable partitions may cause problems during inspection.
Can you start operating immediately after receiving the academy registration certificate?
Not necessarily.
Additional administrative steps may still be required.
Registration and license tax
Once registration is approved, registration and license tax may need to be paid.
The amount can vary depending on the academy and local rules.
Business registration
After academy registration, the business should also complete tax business registration with the tax office.
Again:
Tax business registration does not substitute for academy registration.
Liability insurance
Academy operators may be required by local ordinance to obtain liability insurance or equivalent coverage for injuries to students.
In Seoul, newly established academies are generally required to complete the relevant insurance procedures within the prescribed period.
Tuition registration
Tuition and certain additional charges may need to be registered or reported in accordance with education authority requirements.
Instructor notification
When instructors are hired, their qualifications should be verified and the required notification should be submitted to the competent education authority.
Under Seoul guidance, employment or dismissal of instructors generally must be reported within 15 days.
These post-registration requirements are easy to overlook when all attention is focused on the opening date.
Can the academy owner teach classes personally?
Possibly, but the qualification to establish an academy and the qualification to teach as an instructor are not necessarily identical.
If the owner personally teaches students, he or she should confirm whether the applicable instructor qualification requirements are satisfied for the relevant curriculum.
The same applies when hiring other instructors.
The academy may also need to verify educational qualifications, criminal background requirements, and other statutory conditions.
If the academy plans to employ a foreign instructor, another layer must also be considered:
the foreign instructor's immigration status and authorized scope of employment.
Academy-law compliance does not by itself authorize a foreign national to work in Korea.
Do online academies also need registration?
Online education is not automatically exempt from the Academy Act.
The Act also regulates certain forms of remote instruction using information and communications technology.
If an operator provides actual teaching services through real-time video classes or similar online instruction, it may be necessary to consider registration as a remote teaching academy.
On the other hand, merely producing educational videos can be legally different from directly providing an organized instructional service to students.
The key question is:
who is teaching whom, in what form, and as part of what continuing instructional service?
You should therefore not assume:
“There is no physical classroom, so academy registration does not apply.”
The actual business model needs to be reviewed.
Can you choose any academy name you want?
No.
Academy names are also subject to restrictions.
Education authorities require operators to use the registered academy name and may restrict names that could mislead students into believing that the academy is an officially recognized school, branch school, kindergarten, or similar institution.
It is also advisable to check whether the proposed name conflicts with another academy in the jurisdiction or with an existing registered trademark.
If you produce signs, logos, and advertising materials before confirming the name, changing the name later can create unnecessary costs.
It is safer to confirm the availability of the academy name before ordering signage or branding materials.
What changes in October 2026 regarding the so-called "4-year-old and 7-year-old entrance exams"?
Amendments to the Academy Act promulgated on March 31, 2026 will take effect on October 1, 2026.
The new Article 12-2 restricts academy operators, tutors, and private extracurricular instructors from conducting tests or assessments of young children for the purpose of:
- recruitment or admission; or
- level-based placement.
The revised system allows limited forms of observation or interview-based assessment after enrollment, subject to statutory conditions, including prior parental consent and educational-support purposes.
This is particularly relevant to businesses such as:
- English academies for young children;
- arts academies;
- early-childhood education programs; and
- other private education businesses that previously used admission or level-placement testing.
For these businesses, compliance in late 2026 will not be limited to building and facility requirements.
Recruitment, admissions, and placement procedures should also be reviewed under the amended law.
What if you are acquiring an existing academy?
An existing academy should not be treated as automatically safe simply because it is already operating.
Where the academy founder or operator changes, a change-registration procedure may be required.
You should also review:
- the current registration status;
- the lease;
- facility conditions;
- previous administrative sanctions;
- instructor status;
- approved curriculum; and
- any intended expansion or remodeling.
If you expand the premises or alter the classroom layout, a facility that was compliant under the previous configuration may require a new review.
When acquiring an academy, it is therefore not enough to ask:
“How many students are enrolled, and how much revenue does the academy make?”
You should also ask:
“Can the current registration structure actually be transferred and maintained?”
The biggest academy-registration mistakes often begin with the wrong sequence
The academy registration procedure itself may look straightforward.
You submit an application, prepare the facility, and obtain approval from the education authority.
The problem is that money usually moves before the registration application is filed.
You pay the deposit.
You may pay goodwill or acquisition costs.
You sign an interior construction contract.
You order desks, signs, equipment, and teaching materials.
If you discover afterward that the location cannot be registered, reversing those decisions may be expensive.
A safer sequence is generally:
decide the curriculum → determine expected capacity → review building use, facility standards, restricted businesses, and fire safety → sign the lease → finalize the interior plan → apply for academy registration → complete post-registration procedures
The exact sequence may vary depending on the case.
But the principle is simple.
Do not lease first and try to make the property fit the license later. Confirm registration feasibility before committing to the property.
Pre-registration checklist for opening a private academy in Korea
Before opening an academy, consider the following:
- [ ] Have you determined whether the business should be an academy or a gyoseupso?
- [ ] Have you determined the maximum number of students who may attend at the same time?
- [ ] Have you defined the exact curriculum?
- [ ] Have you checked the local facility standards for that curriculum?
- [ ] Have you reviewed the building register?
- [ ] Have you checked the total academy-related floor area in the building?
- [ ] If it is a school curriculum academy, have you checked for restricted businesses in the building?
- [ ] If the premises are on the third floor or above, have you reviewed the direct stairway requirements?
- [ ] Have you checked fire-safety and electrical-safety requirements based on size and occupancy?
- [ ] Are the leaseholder and academy founder structured correctly?
- [ ] Does the interior floor plan comply with the education authority's facility standards?
- [ ] Have you planned for insurance, tuition registration, and instructor notifications after approval?
If one or more of these issues remain unclear, it is often more cost-effective to resolve them before signing the lease or beginning construction.
When can an administrative attorney help with academy registration?
Academy registration is not merely a matter of completing an application form.
The more important work often happens before filing:
checking whether the planned location and business structure can satisfy the applicable requirements and arranging the documents and procedures in the correct order.
Pre-registration review can be particularly useful when:
- you have not yet signed a lease and want to confirm whether a location is suitable;
- the building-use classification is unclear;
- the academy is located on the third floor or above and stairway requirements may apply;
- another regulated business is located in the same building;
- a corporation will establish the academy;
- you are acquiring an existing academy;
- you plan to expand the premises or add a new curriculum;
- you are establishing a remote teaching academy; or
- the education authority has requested supplementary documents.
Ethos Administrative Attorney Office can review the proposed academy type, curriculum, location, and current stage of preparation to identify the applicable administrative requirements.
If the lease has already been signed, the review can begin with the existing lease and building information.
If you have not yet signed the lease, reviewing the location first may reduce avoidable costs.
Key Laws and Official Materials
- Act on the Establishment and Operation of Private Teaching Institutes and Extracurricular Lessons
- Enforcement Decree of the Act on the Establishment and Operation of Private Teaching Institutes and Extracurricular Lessons
- Enforcement Rule of the Act on the Establishment and Operation of Private Teaching Institutes and Extracurricular Lessons
- Enforcement Decree of the Building Act, including Article 34 and attached tables
- Enforcement Decree of the Special Act on the Safety Control of Publicly Used Establishments
- Seoul Metropolitan Government Ordinance concerning private academies and extracurricular instruction
- Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education guidance on establishment and operation of private academies and tutoring institutes
- Ministry of Education materials concerning measures to protect the developmental rights of young children and regulate excessive private education