Global Korea Scholarship gives international students funding, mentoring, opportunity

K-campus

Published: 03 Jun. 2023, 07:00 Updated: 04 Jun. 2023, 18:21

Global Korea Scholarship gives international students funding, mentoring, opportunity

GKS scholars attend the GKS Year End Party in December last year. [NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION]

Global Korea Scholarship (GKS) is one of the most sought-after scholarships for international students in Korea, and a student's growth potential is one of the heavily weighed factors selecting organizations look for.

"After we check that the students meet the minimum requirements during the [National Institute for International Education (Niied)] selection process, we mostly look into the student's future growth potential," Lee Eun-sun, former director of Niied's Global Korea Scholarship Center, said in an interview with the Korea JoongAng Daily. "We look into the study plans written by the students, along with what they studied in the past and their report cards."

"We also hope that the students grow up to become people that can bridge Korea and their home country, and we take that into consideration as well."

Lee was the center's director until May, when her term ended, and is now at the Education Ministry.

GKS is a government-funded scholarship that provides full tuition to around 1,300 prospective undergraduate and graduate students each year, with the GKS-U scholarship for undergraduates and GKS-G for postgraduates. Round-trip airfare, monthly stipend and settlement allowance are also granted to GKS scholars.

Students can either apply through the university or the embassy track. The university track applicants may apply for a scholarship at only one university of their choice, and the embassy track applicants up to three. The embassy track, however, has a quota for each country, and for this year, 139 countries were given a quota for the track, each one to two.

Overseas Korean embassies and universities are the ones responsible for screening and evaluating the applicants in the first round, but selected students then get screened by Niied's selection committee.

In the past, GKS aimed to foster international talent who would study in Korea and then return to their home countries to help build amicable relations between Korea and their home countries. But policy focuses have changed, with the institution also looking for students who want to get jobs in Korea when assessing the student's future potential.

"Rather than having students go back to their countries and grow there, our policies are changing to support students to get jobs because Korea is facing a labor shortage problem," Lee said.

Every year, around half of the graduating GKS scholars decide to stay in Korea, according to Niied. Among those staying, around 30 percent of the students are already employed, with another 30 percent staying in Korea to pursue higher degrees and the rest looking for jobs.

Apart from each student's potential, the minimum requirements checked by Niied are fairly simple.

Applicants need a cumulative grade point average of 80 percent or higher in their previous degree program, with undergraduate program applicants having to be under the age of 25 and the age of 40 for graduate programs. Being physically fit and in good health is another criterion students have to meet.

To have more international students staying in Korea and settling down with jobs, Niied aims to provide more GKS grant opportunities.

Ryoo Hyea-sook, president of National Institute for International Education [NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION]

"The government announced it will increase [official development assistance] funding, and we have high hopes because that's what seems to be happening," Ryoo Hyea-sook, president of Niied, said during the interview. "There's huge competition for GKS scholarships from many countries, and we think we can continue to develop it into a beneficial program if funding increases."

"We annually have around 1,300 to 1,400 seats for the GKS, and pushing that up to 2,000 or 3,000 is more fitting for Korea's status."

GKS grants are funded by the government's official development assistance (ODA) budget, which has been increasing. This year's ODA budget was 4.5 trillion won ($3.4 billion), up 14.2 percent on year.

More scholarships have already been created.

GKS UIC and GKS R&D are new scholarships that were created last year. The scholarships specifically fund students who wish to study in fields such as tech, engineering and sciences, which are the areas that Korea faces labor shortages. Those fields also require more students in graduate schools.

Similar to GKS-U and GKS-G, the two new scholarships offer full tuition, round-trip airfare, monthly stipend and housing allowance. The GKS UIC scholarship is for undergraduate students, and GKS R&D is for graduate students.

One of the perks of those scholarships is that there is no country quota. Students simply have to apply to individual universities they wish to join.

"Country quotas also take foreign relations into consideration, so [GKS scholars] won't all come from the same country," Lee said. "For instance, Korea's biggest international student population comes from China and then from Vietnam, but we originally set country quotas so we can create a student network with countries all over the world."

"But GKS R&D and GKS UIC are scholarships looking for people who will come to Korea and get jobs in the future, so we don't necessarily need to set country quotas. If we allow candidates from all over the world to apply, that actually means more talented students can come to Korea through wider competition."

The first batch of GKS UIC scholars was selected in December last year, starting their one-year language program this spring.

The scholarship had a competition rate of around 20 percent.

As it was created last year, only a few universities participate in the GKS UIC program. In 2022, the GKS UIC grant was only offered at eight universities, including Sogang University, Ajou University and Korea University of Technology and Education. The GKS R&D grant was only offered at 12, including KAIST, Sungkyunkwan University and Kookmin University.

"We need to offer the scholarship at more universities," Lee said. "We can't specifically state our plans at the moment, but the number will increase."

GKS grants not only provide financial funding but further support for international students to adapt to living in Korea.

Niied offers many mentoring programs for GKS students, with alums providing one-on-one mentoring to the scholars regarding academics, job searching and adjusting to Korean society.

The alums also attend the Job Fair for International Students, jointly hosted by Niied and Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency, to provide mentoring to visitors.

"Students struggle to find information about how to get a job, and we need to provide those types of information and help them get mentoring from other GKS scholars who have already gotten a job," Lee said. "We do have programs like that, but we think we still need to do more in those areas."

With more support, Niied hopes Korea will become an attractive country for international students.

"The Ministry of Education thinks of Korean education as something that can be a brand for Korea," Ryoo said. "Korean universities have very good infrastructure, with universities outside greater Seoul having huge campuses and affordable dormitories."

"A lot of students are interested in studying in East Asia, and many used to go to Japan and China, but Korea is now becoming a more attractive country to them."

BY LEE TAE-HEE [lee.taehee2@joongang.co.kr]