KAIST International Graduate Students Scholarship, 2025-2026

The KAIST International Graduate Students Scholarship is offered by the Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) to support International Students willing to pursue studies at Masters or Ph.D. degree level at the institute. The aim of the KAIST institute scholarship program is to attract the brightest minds that are able to contribute to its research activities.

The scholarship is fully funded and provides full tuition fee waiver, living expenses, medical insurance, and additional funds for research assistantship. The KAIST Graduate Scholarship is open for a wide range of programs offered at the graduate level. This is a great opportunity for international students to study in South Korea.

The Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology is a national research university located in Daedeok Innopolis, in South Korea. The institute has approximately 10,200 full-time students, 1,140 faculty researchers and had a total budget of US$765 million in 2013, of which US$459 million was from research contracts. In 1971, the Korean government established KAIST as the nation’s first research-oriented science and engineering institution.

Furthermore, KAIST is ranked 4th on the QS WU Asian University Rankings, 13th on the QS WU Rankings in Material Sciences, 15th on the QS WU Rankings in Chemical Engineering and 17th on the QS WU Rankings in Electrical and Electronic Engineering.

Program Details

• Host Institution: The Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), South Korea.
• Field of study: Please see full list below.
• Number of awards: Not specified.
• Duration: Masters (4 semesters) / PhD (8 semesters) / MS-PhD Integrated (10 semesters).
• Eligible countries: Open to all nationalities except Korean citizens.

KAIST International Graduate Students Scholarship Benefits

The KAIST Scholarship for International Graduate Students to study in Asia provides various benefits. International applicants who select the KAIST scholarship as their financial resource during the admission application process will be automatically considered for the following scholarship programs (KGPS, KPS, or KAIST CoE PhD Fellowship), based on their chosen degree program or major.:

KAIST Global Presidential Scholarship (KGPS)

• Departments Accepting Applications: All departments( except the Global Technology Innovation Program (GDI-GTIP Track)).
• Admission Periods: Spring/Fall Early/Fall Regular
• Eligibility Requirements: Open to international applicants for Master’s or Master’s-PhD Integrated programs
• Benefits: Full tuition coverage and a monthly stipend of 1,000,000 KRW for 4 regular semesters
• Details: Master’s or Master’s-PhD Integrated program applicants for the KAIST scholarship are automatically considered for the KGPS. No separate application is necessary, but only highly competitive applicants will be recommended by the department head.

KAIST Prestige Scholarship for International Ph.D. Students(KPS)

• Departments Accepting Applications: All departments
• Admission Periods: Spring/Fall Early/Fall Regular
• Eligibility Requirements: Open to international applicants for Master’s-PhD Integrated or Ph.D. programs
• Benefits: Full tuition coverage and a monthly stipend of 300,000 KRW for 8 regular semesters (applicants admitted to the Master’s-PhD. Integrated program will receive the scholarship at the start of the Ph.D. program)
• Details: Eligible applicants are automatically considered for the KPS. Those demonstrating outstanding academic and research achievements will receive recommendations from the department head, with final selection by the college dean.

KAIST CoE PhD Fellowship

• Departments Accepting Applications: All departments within the College of Engineering
• Admission Periods: Spring/Fall Early/Fall Regular
• Eligibility Requirements: Recommendation from the applicant’s department (The recommendation process relies solely on the department’s decision and the final decision of the College of Engineering and does not involve the applicant directly.)
• Benefits: Full tuition coverage and a monthly fellowship of 2,500,000 KRW for 4 academic years.
• Details: Highly qualified candidates with exceptional GPAs will automatically be considered for these CoE PhD Fellowship positions. Only those applying for Master’s-Ph.D. integrated or Ph.D. programs are qualified for KAIST CoE PhD Fellowships. The fellowship pays a monthly fellowship of 2,500,000 KRW (with 50% from CoE and 50% from individual departments/professors) and is awarded for the duration of 4 years, conditioned on satisfactory progress toward degree requirements. This benefit is in addition to the tuition waivers. To receive the fellowship, recipients cannot receive other financial aid apart from the KAIST CoE PhD Fellowship and must maintain an enrolled academic status. Additionally, they must commit full-time to their laboratory.

KAIST International Graduate Students Scholarship Eligibility

To apply for this university scholarship, candidates must meet all of the following requirements:

• For the Master’s Degree Program or Master-PhD Integrated Program, applicants must hold or expect to hold a bachelor’s degree by August, 2025.
• For Doctoral Degree Program, applicants must hold or expect to hold a bachelor’s and master’s degree before enrollment at KAIST August, 2025.
• Have foreign citizenship. Applicants who hold Korean Citizenship (dual citizenship) are not eligible to apply as foreign students.
• International applicants of Korean ethnicity, regardless of the place of birth, must additionally satisfy ONE of the two requirements below:
  1. NEITHER of their parents holds Korean citizenship. Those whose parent (s) has/have ever had Korean citizenship must additionally provide an official document supporting their renunciation of Korean citizenship and the applicant.
  2. The applicant must have received the ENTIRE elementary, junior high, and high school education OUTSIDE of Korea at the comparable and equivalent level of education in Korea. In this case, international schools located in Korea are not acknowledged as foreign schools. Those who have completed their entire education (elementary, junior high, high school, and undergraduate) outside of Korea must additionally submit:
     • the Certificate of the Facts Concerning the Entry & Exit (“출입국사실증명서”) issued by the Korean Immigration Office and
     • official transcripts and graduation certificates from the schools attended.
• English is the medium language of instruction. Therefore, applicants from non-English-speaking countries must meet the language requirements. Achieve a minimum scores for TOEFL iBT (83), IELTS (6.5 band), TOEIC (720), TEPS (326).

For further details about KAIST International Graduate Admission, please click on this link.

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How to Apply for KAIST International Graduate Students Scholarship

There is no separate application process for the KAIST scholarship. Just check “KAIST scholarship” on the Statement of Financial Resources section of the online application system for admission. Please click on the “Apply” button below to start the application process. To submit your application correctly for this Asia scholarship please follow the steps below to submit your application for admissions.

1. Click on the apply button below to start the online application and complete the application for graduate admission according to the provided instructions.
2. Check whether all the information is correct and save the file. Please note that after paying the application fee, you will not be allowed to modify your application and the fee will not be refunded. Therefore, you need to make sure that all the information you entered is correct and final before paying the application fee.
3. Pay the application fee. You can pay the application fee by credit card. The application fee is USD 80 or KRW 80,000.
4. Print out your online application form. Please keep the application number for further procedures and to check the final admission decision.
5. Check your e-mail at regular intervals. If necessary, the review department will reach out to you for an interview.

Please note that this post is only for graduate programs. Therefore, candidates willing to apply for undergraduate degree programs should click here.

The online application deadline for the fall 2025 intake is March 25, 2025 at 5 P.M.. Letter of Recommendation Submission should be received by the university no later than April 2, 2025 at 6 P.M.. For more details on the KAIST International Graduate Students Scholarship, please visit the official page. To be the first to see latest opportunities, please follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram.