4 Chinese International Students Selected for Government Scholarships
Korean Fulbright Offers 1 Year 'GKS Scholarship'
[May 6, 2010]
International students at Yeungnam University were selected for the '2010 GKS Outstanding International Student Scholarship (hereinafter referred to as GKS Scholarship)' recently announced by the government.
‘GKS’ (Global Korea Scholarship) integrated existing scholarship programs for domestic and foreign students by the National Institute for International Education, which is under the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology. The 'Outstanding International Student Scholarship' program, which is part of this scholarship program, offers government scholarships by selecting outstanding international students who came to Korea paying their own way. It is basically the 'Korean Fulbright Scholarship Program'.
Candidates for the 'GKS Scholarship' in the past February are undergraduates who placed level 4 in TOPIK (Test of Proficiency in Korean) with a GPA of 3.0 (out of 4.5) or higher. Its goal is to offer government scholarships to students who are good at Korean and have outstanding grades in order to enhance the national image.
Chinese Students who received GKS scholarships (left to right: Fei Chengji, Qui Min, Jia Yushan, Wang Chunqing)
At Yeungnam University, 4 Chinese international students applied for the scholarship. They are Wang Chungqing (王純淸, 21, Senior in Economics and Finance), Jia Yushan (賈玉刪, 24, Senior in International Economics and Business), Qui Min (邱敏, 23, Senior in Chinese Language and Culture), and Fei Chengji (裵丞姬, 23, Senior in Sociology), and they all received the scholarship for a 100% success rate.
Thus, these four students will receive a monthly 500 thousand won scholarship per person for one year from the Korean government. Fei Chengji, who is from Heilongjiang, stated, "I am very happy that I could take a load off of my parents, who have been working here in Korea to pay for my tuition. I am very grateful to Korea."
Their future goals are all the same. They all wish to act as a bridge for developing friendly relations between Korea and China. For this, Fei Chengji is planning to go on to graduate school and become a professional translator/interpreter, and the other three hope to work in the trade business between Korea and China.
Park, Gi-dong, director of the International Service Team of Yeungnam University, stated, "We not only provide Korean language education to foreigners hoping to study in Korea, but also offer free Korean language courses every day for 2 hours fitting to their skill level to foreigners studying in our undergraduate and graduate schools. In addition, we offer support for taking the TOPIK, while also providing the Buddy Program to help foreign students adapt to school and life here in Korean by teaming them up with Korean students." He added, "Just as the US did in the past, the more outstanding international students that receive scholarships from our country's government, the higher our international prestige will rise."
Meanwhile, Yeungnam University admitted a total of 1,100 international students this semester. This is an increase of three folds compared to the same period five years ago (at 348 students), and it shows evidence of how quickly the school is becoming globalized. Also, the fact that international students are coming in from all over the world in 29 countries such as Germany, Russia, Macedonia, Turkey, Poland, France, Dominican Republic, USA, Canada, Brazil, Peru, Rwanda, Senegal and Kenya, proves that inbound globalization, which is the goal of making the campus a global village, is successfully underway.
