메인메뉴 바로가기 본문으로 바로가기
홈 Education System Overview - Competition for Global Korea Scholarship is Fierce

Overview

  • 담당부서국제교육협력담당관
  • 작성자이동주
  • DATE2018-09-17
  • HIT2882

제목 : Competition for Global Korea Scholarship is Fierce

From 138 countries, 665 students are selected for master's or doctoral degree courses under the Global Korea Scholarship (GKS), and they will begin their studies in September in Korean education institutions.

 

(The 138 students selected for a bachelor's degree via Korean Global Scholarship program were already selected in January 2018.)

 

(The Korean Government Scholarship: With an aim to establish pro-Korean global networks and attract talented foreign students while supporting them to acquire a degree in Korea in order to promote international education.)

 

The Ministry of Education (Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education Kim Sang-kon) and the National Institute for International Education (President Song Ki-Dong) are organizing a preliminary education program at the NIIED from 27th to 29th August to help the students to adapt to Korean culture and have a successful studying experience in Korea.

 

Depending on their TOPIK grades (TOPIK level 5), students who have finished preliminary education can attend their graduate schools or learn Korean at a Korean institution for a year and then they study their degree course afterward.

 

The Korean Government Scholarship Program started in 1967 and has since invited 8,922 students from 156 countries. It now invites excellent students from over 150 countries every year and supports them to acquire a degree.

 

(Support and grants: living expenses (900,000 KRW/month), round-trip flight tickets, immigration grant, departure grant, research subsidies, Korean language training subsidies, tuition fees, thesis printing fees, insurance)

 

The number of foreign GKS students depends on the government's foreign policies and on whether the countries are on reciprocal terms to offer student scholarship. The candidates recommended by universities or embassies are evaluated by the NIIED upon their studies, linguistic abilities, and potential for improvement. The NIIED is reviewing the documents and shortlisting candidates. Eventually, it is the universities that make the final decision to choose their students.

 

Recently, as a consequence of the so-called Korean Wave as well as Korea's boost of its brand value of Korean education, the number of excellent students who want to acquire their degrees in Korea has increased and therefore competition has become fierce.

 

(Competition rate: ('16) 5.5:1 → ('17) 6:1 → ('18) 5.8:1)

 

Eki Setianingtyas, an Indonesian student admitted to Korea University's master's degree course, has applied for the GKS and is going to come to Korea as a GKS scholarship student, based on the experience of having studied Korean for 6 months as an exchange student.

 

- For the last 5 years, Indonesia has showed the highest competition rate for GKS. This year, the competition rate was at 29:1 (633 students applied for a limited number of 22 places)

 

- In Trinidad Tobago, the interest for GKS is so high that it was once covered by the press. Marianne Chang from Trinidad Tobago says, "As Korea is a country where medical technology and the medical system are well developed, I want to contribute to developing the medical environment in my home country after studying biotechnology in Korea."

 

From this year on, a special selection for overseas Koreans and overseas adoptees has been introduced.

 

A, a student admitted to B University's master's degree course was adopted at the age of 9 months to the United States, started to learn Korean two years ago after the encounter with his biological mother. After their contact, he decided to come to Korea to raise awareness about the Korean adoptee issue.

 

As for the preliminary education program, the Ministry of Education and the NIIED offer bachelor's degree guidance and crime prevention education in order to support the students to adapt successfully in Korea.

 

Choi, Yeonghan, Director-General of the International Cooperation Bureau of the Ministry of Education says that, "The Ministry of Education will continuously strive for quantitative and qualitative expansion of the GKS program. We will support invited students so that they can fully focus on their studies by providing Korean language lessons and students counseling as well as awards for excellent international students."

 

*unofficial translation