Scholarships come in different forms based on factors such as the duration of study and the applicant's academic qualifications.
Some Korean universities offer internal scholarships based on merit or on financial need.
External scholarships are provided by companies such as Samsung, domestic and foreign governments, and private foundations, each with a different focus.
Scholarship donors and foundations indicate a multitude of reasons as to why they started to offer their scholarship program for students in Korea, while certain goals are mentioned repeatedly throughout all scholarship descriptions: The general availability, ease of accessibility and amount of funding (per stay and applicant) differs widely depends on the intended duration of study or research and the highest academic qualification of the applicant.
Similar to other countries, scholarship applications for a short-term exchange (around six months) have the highest chance of success.
Its target applicants are IT majors in the graduate school, while another goal is the improvement of the faculty situation.
The Samsung Scholarship provides financial support, encouragement and opportunities to gifted Korean students pursuing higher education overseas.
On the other hand, the company offers the Samsung Global Scholarship Program (Samsung GSP), which offers similar opportunities for talented international candidates interested in obtaining a Master of Science in Engineering or an MBA.
The Korea Foundation especially fosters students that major in subjects related to Korean language and culture, while the KRF puts a strong focus on sponsoring candidates interested in obtaining a scholarly career track, i.e. who are researching in the fields of Sciences and Engineering.