In May 2021, I applied for the Global Korea Scholarship (GKS) from the United States through the embassy track for a graduate program. Having been awarded this scholarship, I have since graduated from Korea University with an MSc in Environmental Science and Ecological Engineering.
With that experience, I decided to review GKS, focusing on the financal benefits and the unexpected challenges of the program. This article highlights GKS’s management and its impact on your experience. This is not a review of studying in Korea or any specific academic program.
A couple things to keep in mind:
- The program has changed significantly in the three years I have been a scholarship recipient. When I started in 2021, the free Korean language education had to be completed in a different region from your university. I was sent to Jeollanam-do for language training, but now students complete it at their graduate institution.
- Monthly payment amounts and terms in the GKS contract have fluctuated, meaning the scholarship will likely change during your time as well.
- Your scholarship is managed by the international department at your university, so your experience will vary based on your institution. Some of my experiences are specific to Korea University (KU), while others are common to GKS as a whole. So, this review covers both GKS as a whole and KU’s GKS management.
The Pros: Free education and some living expense money
The benefits of this program are well-documented: GKS covers your flights to and from Korea, provides a living stipend, and covers your full tuition.
It’s a pretty nice deal.
Breaking down my numbers:
Here’s a detailed breakdown of what was paid to me (total cash) and the overall value of the scholarship program (total value), which includes both tuition payments and round-trip flights. Please note that changes in your university’s tuition fees will affect this total, but the scholarship still covers full tuition.
Since my acceptance, these values have increased. For the period of 2021-2023, the monthly stipend was 1,000,000 won (725.75 USD), and now it has risen to 1,308,330 won (944.53 USD) for graduate students. This represents an overall increase of 15%, though I’ll explain the math later, as some funding cuts have also occurred.
In addition, I was very helpful to come in with a cohort of other students. If I had just done language training and my graduate program I wouldn’t have had so many people around me to immediately make friends with. This is likewise true for finding out information and being guided by the people overseeing me in the program. They took care of a lot of the paperwork that is required on my behalf, and what I had to do myself they gave clear instructions.
Summary of the positive aspects of GKS
A major advantage of this program is the extensive free education it provides, including both Korean language courses and your degree. As a natural science major, I likely could have much of my degree expenses covered by the institution because its a research masters. However, this is not as feasible for students majoring in international studies or humanities, who make up the majority of the GKS student population.
As an American living in South Korea, it is considerably less expensive than in most U.S. cities, which allows me to enjoy dining out and drinking coffee at a fraction of the cost compared to back home. While this cost advantage doesn’t apply to all GKS students, the program does enable students to live comfortably on their stipend with reasonably priced dorms and affordable on-campus food options.
Perhaps the greatest benefit of this program is the opportunity it provides to study in South Korea rather than at home. Whether you’re passionate about Korean culture, eager to experience life abroad, or seeking an international education, this scholarship program makes it all possible, and I’m truly grateful for that.
However, the management of GKS has made it extremely difficult for students to live on this funding.
The CONS of the GKS program – Payments and Part-time Work
1,000,000 won isn’t a huge amount for living expenses in South Korea, but since it was free money, I was grateful for it.
Recently, the stipend has increased to 1,308,330 won (944.53 USD), which appears to be a 30% increase. However, this came with the elimination of the separate healthcare reimbursements (totalling about 900,000 won annually) and the semester research bonuses (totalling about 410,000 won annually). Which makes the true annual increase about 2,400,000 won — which is a 15% increase for students. Even at 15%, this was positive development and long overdue
Nevertheless, there are three significant issues with GKS management that left a bad taste in my mouth:
- Late payments in March and September
- Inconsistent payment dates
- Difficulties for students in securing part-time jobs they are permitted to work
- Restricting resume building opportunities
1. Beginning of the semester has payment delays
During graduate school, payments in March and September were delayed by 3-4 weeks – the official reasoning by university employees was that it was it start of the semester, and therefore there was a delay.
Student often struggled to pay big bills (national healthcare, rent etc) during these months. The employees claimed it was beyond their control and suggested students should have anticipated it as it happens every semester. However, with low stipends and the need to buy supplies at the start of the semester, it made saving enough to get through these delays difficult.
I also question the truth of it being truly beyond their control, as eventually it was changed for half the stipend to be paid on time and the other half being paid 6 weeks later. Not to mention during language training, which I completed at Suncheon National University, did not have this same delayed payment issue.
It’s also worth noting that the ‘students should have anticipated it’ narrative is also nonsense. For in my first semester at KU I was not warned, so I was taken by surprise when no deposit hit my account for several weeks.
2. I had no idea when I will get paid
At Korea University, we never received our stipends with any logical consistency. It was always “the end of the month,” but the exact day was unpredictable. Even when asked for specifics, we got no clear answers. In 2024, they shifted payments to mid-month, but still without specifying the exact day.
Payment schedules also varied by your year in the program. Group chats buzzed with students trying to figure out when they would get their funding, and there were differences in payment dates depending on your program year.
When we pointed out that no workplace would pay so arbitrarily, the response was that it was a scholarship, not a job.
Don’t believe me? Check out my payment history yourself
Their logging system makes the months appear out of order, but look at these payment dates. The 26th, 23rd, 28th, etc. And if you are wondering, they aren’t consistent days of the week either – Thursday, Monday, Sunday etc.
So let me ask you; How do you plan your life and budget when you have no idea when your stipend will be paid?
3. Restricting Part-time work under false pretenses
Korea University actively fought to stop me from getting a part time job in my laboratory. If you read the scholarship contract it’s quite clear, you can have a job while in your grad program if you have good grades, meet TOPIK requirements, if it isn’t too many hours and you can argue the benefit of it.
Korea University’s GKS program actively argued that during semester jobs were prohibited under GKS rules. They claimed part-time employment could only occur during the summer and winter breaks – this is contrary not only to GKS rules, but the official immigration rules, and the rules written on KU’s own website. It took a full court press by my professor and myself with me highlighting sections of my GKS contract and my professor emailing multiple people in order to get them to allow me to be able to be paid for my work in my laboratory. I’m very thankful to my professor, showing it’s not international services that you can go to, but the professors who take you under their wing and want what’s best for you.
The money I made working part time for my laboratory made a massive difference in my quality of life, increasing my monthly take home by about 700,000 won. This was especially a big deal because for the majority of my degree program I was receiving the 1,000,000 won stipend.
My case didn’t make them see the light, just an exception was made.
4. Some opportunities are restricted to GKS students
During my grad program, I didn’t really pay too much attention to all the funding, special opportunities and other emails we get from Korea University because my lab kept me busy with work and research projects – However, there was no shortage of programs I saw that included an asterisks at the bottom that stated ‘participation not available to GKS students’. This isn’t just an issue of reducing funding opportunities, but rather these restrictions are limiting our resume building opportunities.
Some might argue that they offer events to help get you hired when you graduate – but these are not a unique benefit to GKS recipients, as participation is possible for all international graduate students.
Those are all my major complaints. Now on to the smaller things that drove me crazy.
My minor complaints
- Much like the payment schedule, they don’t provide advance notice about any details of my schedule, even when these details are crucial for planning your life.
- My best example: scheduling my flight back to my home country— At the end of my program, I needed to know when my flight home would be booked to coordinate with my aunt, who had to drive five hours to pick me up. She needed time to be able to ask for time off at work, but I couldn’t provide a date for the flight, and more significant I couldn’t even provide her a date for when I would find out. We received no advance notice about flight bookings, so I emailed at the end of June asking about when we will pick out flight dates for July/August, but received no helpful information. It was only on July 1st that I was informed about booking dates for July and August, without any prior timeline. This is not a short study abroad; as graduate students live in South Korea for 3-5 years, returning home is a major transition, and the lack of information and timeline was extremely frustrating – both for my family and considering future employment.
- Monthly forms require repetitive information. New documents are needed for each stipend payment (every month), and stipends are withheld if not submitted on time. Often given just 3-4 days to complete, which is especially challenging during winter and summer breaks where you might be traveling or home without constant internet access. – one winter break I was backpacking in the mountains; when I got word of a 3 day deadline.
- GKS rules restrict international travel to summer and winter breaks, unlike Korean classmates who can attend conferences during the semester – which hinders natural science students. Travel requests must be submitted two weeks in advance with specific dates, and multiple redundant documents are required upon return.
- GKS asks intrusive questions about travel and living arrangements. They also request physical and mental health information every semester, which feels unnecessary and invasive.
In conclusion:
Despite the frustrations I experienced with the GKS program, I am deeply grateful for the incredible opportunities it provided me in South Korea. While I believe the program needs significant improvements in its management and payment processes, I would still choose to participate again. I recommend that future GKS students save money before starting the program to avoid issues related to the payment structure.
Wishing everyone luck with their applications.
You might come to Korea for the culture, but you will stay for the food haha
Good luck!
-Aurora
Nice
thanks so much for this! Was wondering if it was difficult studying Environmental Science and Ecological Engineering in korean, even after the korean language program? If so, what did you have to do to overcome the difficulty? Would you have to write and publish papers in Korean or would that be done in english? How about lab hours? Do you often have to stay overtime as required by your seniors/prof in the lab? Asking because I am also planning to do environmental engineering, so wanna get some opinions on this.
Hello, thank you for your feedback. I am also a GKS scholar, and I share your frustration with the GKS rules and my university. While the scholarship offers some opportunities, I feel like we are often put aside because we are GKS scholars. There is a clear lack of management and, above all, support for us, which makes it difficult to adjust and thrive in this environment. Although I try to focus on the positives, the challenges of feeling excluded and unsupported overshadow the benefits of the program.