By Han Sang-hee
The government will provide 300 graduate students with 60 million won each for two years, in a bid to nurture future Nobel Prize winners.
The Ministry of Education, Technology and Science, and the National Research Foundation of Korea are launching a special support program called “Global Doctorate Fellowship” which will foster an environment where students concentrate only on their studies and research without the stress of living expenses such as housing and tuition.
“The foremost feature is that the grant is larger than similar projects including the BK21 and thus will enable students to solely work in their fields of interest,” said Lee Jin-seok, director at the education policy department of the ministry Wednesday.
The BK 21, also known as “Brain Korea 21,” is a seven-year project that started in 2006 by the ministry and the foundation granted different scholarships to students at designated schools.
“We are planning to increase the number of recipients to 2,500 after BK21 ends,” said Lee.
Currently, a total of 300 will be chosen and each will receive 2.5 million won monthly for the next two years. The grant can be used freely for tuition and even short term training outside the country, but with the exception of language training.
They will be selected through documentation evaluation and an interview. During the document evaluation, the students will be judged by their school records, understanding of their department studies and research performance while the interview will affirm adequate English and leadership skills.
When selected, the students will have to work as a full-time student for the next two years and hand in a research paper to catch up on their work every year. For students who have shown outstanding results, the government will allow them to apply again, while all of them will be presented with a “Fellow Certificate” signed by the President.
In order to apply, one must be an upcoming graduate student, achieve a grade point average of 4.3 out of 4.5, score higher than 80 on their TOEFL iBT (Internet-based testing) and 650 or higher on the Test of English Proficiency (TEPS).
Applications will be accepted starting from Jan. 18 through Feb. 10 and are available on the foundation’s website www.nrf.re.kr.
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