SRI Lankan and Korean students are among those the University of Adelaide must target to expand and secure its international student base.

The institution's new pro vice-chancellor (international) Kent Anderson said in his first week he set the task to diversify its international student population, which makes up just under 30 per cent of all students.

"I think that's a really good, solid number but it is overwhelmingly from three specific countries and overwhelmingly to a limited number of disciplines," he said.

"So that means that the real benefit ... is not spread as widely.

"For me it's more about experience in the classroom and the experience we're not sharing that as much as we can."

Prof Anderson said the university attracted a lot of students from China, Malaysia and Singapore but should further pursue students from countries where it had a limited presence but some track record.

"We have some fantastic alumni there and we get some students from there but I think there is more opportunity there as well," he said.

"Korea is another one. We've had some track record in Korea but we probably could do better."

Last year in South Australia there was only a 1.2 per cent increase in the number of international students studying at the state's universities - from 15,819 in 2010 to 16,019 in 2011, Education Adelaide figures show.

This was down on the 6.5 per cent increase between 2009-10 and the 11.7 per cent rise between 2008-09.

Prof Anderson said he also wanted more international students to study in areas other than business/commerce and engineering.

"Other disciplines are harder to slot people in ... but there is a lot to be gained by seeing how other places deal with the same issues we are dealing with," he said.

University of Adelaide electrical and electronics engineering student Chandima De Silva, 20, from Sri Lanka, chose Adelaide because it had a good reputation and she liked the city. "I'm enjoying it more than I thought I would," she said.