This study analyzes undergraduate international students’ access to academic information and their support needs in Korean higher education, and proposes design directions for a multilingual, evidence-based AI support system. An online survey was conducted with 68 undergraduate international students at a university in Seoul. The survey examined students’ information channels, difficulties in accessing academic information, use of formal and informal information sources, and needs for smart-campus-based AI support. The results show that students actively used official digital systems such as university websites, academic portals, and LMS platforms. At the same time, they relied considerably on informal first-language networks, including friends, seniors, and peer communities of the same nationality. Difficulties in accessing academic information were mainly related to the linguistic complexity of Korean notices, the dispersion of information across multiple systems and departments, and the burden of checking procedures. Students expressed strong needs for multilingual or plain Korean explanations, 24-hour online and mobile Q&A services, and personalized guidance on graduation requirements and course completion plans. Group comparisons further showed that first-year students had relatively higher needs for multilingual/plain Korean support and AI-based Q&A services. No significant differences were found by English proficiency, suggesting that English translation alone may not sufficiently resolve international students’ academic information access problems. Based on these findings, this study argues that a multilingual AI support system should not function merely as an information retrieval tool.
Rather, it should provide evidence-based responses grounded in official documents, offer plain-language and multilingual explanations, check relevant conditions, exceptions, and deadlines, connect students to appropriate offices when needed, and include procedures for document updates and operational governance.