奬 Scholarship
Samsung Dream Scholarship Foundation Global Hope Scholarship (Global Hope Scholarship)
◎ Private foundation · Samsung Dream Scholarship Foundation
Who is it for?
Academic support/living allowance of KRW 4,800,000 per semester.
- You are applying for a bachelor’s / graduate (master / phd) program.
- You want full-tuition funding.
- You are from an eligible country (Nationals of developing countries on the OECD DAC List of ODA Recipients…).
Quick facts
Type
Private foundation
Level
Bachelor’s · Graduate (Master / PhD)
Who can apply
Nationals of developing countries on the OECD DAC List of OD
Funding period
Bachelor up to 8 semesters; Master up to 4; PhD up to 6; Integrated Master-PhD up to 8
Recipients
Nominations limited to a maximum of 2 students per country p
Intake year
2026
What you get
Benefits
- Academic support/living allowance of KRW 4,800,000 per semester.
- Support duration by degree: Bachelor up to 8 semesters, Master up to 4 semesters, PhD up to 6 semesters, Integrated Master-PhD up to 8 semesters.
- NOTE: the foundation’s official page states a flat 480 and does NOT explicitly mention a separate full tuition waiver.
- The discovery-note figures (undergrad ‘full tuition waiver + ~KRW 650,000 / month’, grad ‘up to KRW 5M / semester’) were NOT confirmed on the official foundation page or the partner-university notices reviewed (unverified).
Funding period
- Bachelor up to 8 semesters
- Master up to 4
- PhD up to 6
- Integrated Master-PhD up to 8.
Eligibility
Who can apply
- For international students who came to Korea from developing countries to study and who have financial difficulty.
- Essential requirements: (1) be a national of a country on the OECD DAC List of ODA Recipients
- (2) demonstrated financial need
- (3) excellent academic record
- (4) TOPIK Level 2 or higher per the foundation’s own page (partner universities such as Kangwon National University require TOPIK Level 4 or higher for undergraduate applicants) (unverified which threshold is the current binding rule)
- (5) willingness to do volunteer/community-service work and to participate in the foundation’s education programs.
- Excluded: ethnic-Korean diaspora
- students who completed 1+ semester of Korean elementary/middle/high school
- and current recipients of the Korean Government Scholarship (GKS).
- Students must be nominated by a partner university (they cannot apply directly to the foundation).
Nationalities
- Nationals of developing countries on the OECD DAC List of ODA Recipients (Least Developed Country origin is given preference).
- Ethnic-Korean diaspora excluded.
How to apply
Application period
- Recurring per-semester rounds.
- Nominations received in January (for spring / 1) and July (for fall / 2).
- For the 2026-2 (fall) round, partner-university internal nomination deadlines fall in early July 2026 (e.g., SNU Performing Arts dept. deadline ~7 / 7).
- For the 2026-1 (spring) round, a partner-university internal deadline example was December 12, 2025 (Kangwon NU) / ~12/22 (SNU Business).
- Foundation timeline: nomination intake (Jan / Jul) -> document review (Feb / Aug) -> interview (Feb / Aug) -> results announced (Mar / Sep).
How to apply
- Nomination-based only.
- Students do NOT apply directly to the foundation.
- Route: student -> submits to home department -> department -> university International Affairs Office -> university nominates selected candidates to the Samsung Dream Scholarship Foundation.
- Foundation then conducts document screening and an in-person Korean-language interview.
- Only students at the ~18 partner universities can be nominated.
Required documents
- Application form plus supporting/verification documents (scanned copies), including a faculty/department recommendation.
- Exact document list is set per partner university (unverified full list).
- Contact the university International Affairs Office for the current checklist.
Keeping the scholarship
Renewal conditions
- Maintain the foundation’s required semester GPA and credit-completion standards each semester
- reach TOPIK Level 5 by the end of the 3rd year (2nd semester) [per Kangwon NU undergraduate notice]
- actively participate in foundation programs and submit interim/annual reports.
- Support continues up to the per-degree semester cap (e.g., undergrad up to 8 semesters).
Track record. Run by Samsung Dream Scholarship Foundation (Global Hope Scholarship track for international students).
Contact & where to study
Official page
Contact
- Samsung Dream Scholarship Foundation: [email protected], +82-2-727-5406.
- Apply via partner-university nomination.
Participating universities
- About 18 partner (recommending) universities.
- Named/confirmed examples: Seoul National University, Korea University, Yonsei University, Sungkyunkwan University, Hanyang University, Kangwon National University, Chung-Ang University, Dongguk University, Chonnam National University.
- Full list of 18 not published on the foundation page (unverified beyond the above).
Before you apply — verify.
- Scholarship amounts, quotas, dates, and eligibility can change every cycle — always confirm the current details with the official source before you apply.
- This scholarship is usually applied for through your university’s international office (nomination-based) — check the process and their internal deadline.
- The official notice is published in Korean only — use an official translation and double-check key dates.
Data from official sources · last updated 2026-07-03
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