Opportunity Detail
- Language Requirement: Other
- Gender: Male Female
- Level: Bachelor/Master/ PH.D
- Number of Opportunity:1300
- Eligible Region/Countries: All countries
- Medium of Instruction: English Korean
- Field of study: Programs Provided by University
- Opportunity ID: 58945
- Funding Type: Fully Funded
- Duration: 4 Years
Opportunity Description
The Republic of Korea’s annual Global Korea Scholarship (GKS) application period is now open. The government of South Korea provides this fully-funded international scholarship every year at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Usually, the number of undergraduate applicants is 220, and 1,080 places are the allocation to graduate candidates to benefit from this opportunity. Any changes in the number of scholarships are subject to changes in the amount of the budget.
Participation in the GKS program is up to National Institute for International Education (NIIED). The institute is responsible for managing all scholarship works and budgets and inviting the Korean Embassy in the invited country or a university to recommend potential candidates.
The primary purpose of this scholarship is to promote international exchanges and mutual friendship between countries by providing international students with opportunities to continue their advanced studies at Korean higher educational institutions.
Details
Application deadline: Check the embassy/university website
Locations: National Institute for International Education (NIIED), Korea
Organization: Republic of Korea
Gender: Male/Female
Funding Type: Fully-funded
Degree: Undergraduate and Graduate
Number of Positions: 1300
Eligible Countries: All
Duration: 4 years undergraduate, university timeline for graduate
Language Required: English (TOEIC, TOEFL, IELTS) (Optional), Korean (TOPIK)
Fields of study: Courses provided by universities
Benefits
Successful participants of the GKS program will receive a fully-funded scholarship including the following benefits:
- Actual one economy round trip airfare
- Resettlement allowance of 200,000 KRW
- Living allowance of 900,000 KRW ~ 1,000,000 KRW
- Medical insurance of 20,000 KRW (per month)
- One-year Korean language course fees of 800,000 KRW (per quarter)
- Actual full tuition fees maximum 5 million KRW per semester. This exemption is for 8 months.
- Award for excellent Korean language proficiency of 100,000 KRW
- Research support of 210,000 – 240,000 KRW (per semester)
- Dissertation printing costs of 500,000 – 800,000 KRW
- Completion grant of 100,000 KRW (Once)
Eligibility Requirements
There are several eligibility criteria for the GKS program that applicants should meet:
- Applicants and their parents should not be the citizen of the Republic of Korea
- Applicants should have mentally and physically adequate health to stay in a foreign country for a long time
- Undergraduate applicants should be 25 years old at the time of entrance
- Graduate applicants should be under 40 years of age at the time of entrance
- Undergraduate applicants should have finished or will finish their formal elementary, middle, and high school courses by the date of arrival
- Must hold a bachelor’s or master’s degree at the date of arrival
- Applicants should hold above 80% GPA in the last educational institution attended
- If you have previously achieved any bachelor’s, master’s, or doctoral degree in Korea, you cannot apply for the GKS program.
- If you are a former or current KGSP scholar with an overall grade of 90% or above and attained TOPIK level 5 or higher, you can reapply for this scholarship. Such applicants can once either apply through the embassy or university truck.
Korean Language Course
English and Korean language are the medium of instruction for the GKS program. Submitting English (TOEIC, TOEFL, IELTS) is optional, but all GKS beneficiaries must take a 1-year Korean language course regardless of the degree program’s curriculum. Applicants with TOPIK level 5 or 6 should submit their TOPIK certificate to be exempt from the Korean language course. By submitting your valid TOPIK certificate, you can directly start your degree program in March 2022.
If you hold the TOPIK level 5 or 6 certificates later than the application deadline, you must submit the valid TOPIK certificate to NIIED by 21 December 2022. The acceptable TOPIK certificate score is 71 ~ 85 scores.
Scholarship Procedure
NIIED is responsible for the GKS program and will invite the Korean Embassy in the invited country or a Korean university in the country to recommend potential undergraduate or graduate candidates.
Candidates can only submit their application and all required supporting documents to the Korean Embassy in their home country or the domestic university concerned. Once you submit your application, NIIED will review and evaluate your application and notifies the Korean Embassy to invite the final selectees of the GKS program.
GKS Program Timeline
The Global Korean Scholarship program timeline is as follows:
- Announcement Released: September in the year before planned studies in Korea is for undergraduates, and February in the year of planned studies in the host country is for graduate candidates.
- Candidates Recommended: The year before planned studies in Korea is the recommendation period from October to November. The Korean Embassies and designated universities will recommend undergraduate candidates in this period, and from March – April in the year of planned studies in Korea, the Korean Embassies and selected universities will recommend graduate candidates.
- Result Announcement: The results of undergraduate degrees will be announced in January in the year of planned studies in Korea and June in the year of planned studies in Korea is the date for graduate candidates.
- Arrival in Korea: Undergraduate candidates will arrive in late February in the year of planned studies in Korea. The graduate candidates will come in late August during planned studies.
How to Apply
Applicants who want to apply for the GKS program, please visit the Korean Embassy website in your country of residence and prepare your application form along with all required documents for physical submission.
For detailed information, please visit the Study in Korea website run by Korean Government here. Or find the GKS FAQs here.
