Along with the efforts to increase the competitiveness of universities in Korea, one of the foci of higher education reforms initiated by the Korean government in 1995 was to diversify its higher education system. However, it is commonly believed that its attempts to diversify its universities system have not been successful. By examining the efforts and approaches universities have adopted to implement internationalisation policy, this article argues that the government's funding mechanism and the existing hierarchy of universities have worked as converging forces upon the universities' programmes and structures rather than as mechanisms to diversify curricular and academic programmes.