Hyundai Foundation to create scholarship for visiting undergrads

The Hyundai Motor Chung Mong-Koo Foundation plans to expand its global scholarship program to include visiting undergraduate students in addition to master's and doctoral scholarships.

Kim Soo-young, manager at Hyundai Motor Chung Mong-Koo Foundation who is in charge of the foundation's global scholarship program, poses for a photo at the foundation's office in Jongno District, central Seoul. [PARK SANG-MOON]

Although the global scholarship given by the Hyundai Motor Chung Mong-Koo Foundation is relatively new, having started in 2020, the foundation aims to grow by expanding its scope from the current master's and doctorate scholarships to also include visiting undergraduate students.

Currently, the foundation's global scholarship is only for international students from eight Asean countries who have been accepted to master's and doctorate programs at six universities: Seoul National University, Korea University, Yonsei University, Hanyang University, KDI School of Public Policy Management and KAIST.

Students apply for the scholarship after getting accepted into a program, with each university's office of international affairs in charge of the first screening stage. Candidates are then interviewed by the foundation, with selected scholars getting full tuition, settlement expenses and a monthly stipend of 1 million won ($770).

For more information about the scholarship, visit K-campus.

Starting next year, a new scholarship will be created for undergraduate students wishing to come to Korea as a visiting student for a year. Settlement expenses and a stipend for students to fund their studies will be provided.

“A change in policy will allow talented undergraduate students to come and study in Korea. Those students could then decide to enroll in a Korean university's master's and doctorate programs in the future, for which there is a big demand,” Kim Soo-young, a manager in charge of the foundation's global scholarship program, said. “We visited Indonesia this year to sign partnerships with Indonesian universities, and many of them said there's a lot of students who want to go to Korea.”

Starting with Indonesian nationals as a trial run, the foundation aims to expand the one-year visiting student scholarship to more nationalities.

Apart from new scholarships, the foundation also offers additional cash incentives for students to further push themselves.

Its international symposium scholarship offers up to 2.5 million won once a year to pay for travel and accommodation if scholars participate in international symposiums, whether it be ones held abroad or in Korea, but with a worldwide scope.

The global scholarship of excellence is given to students who get their paper published in a renowned international journal or win the first or second prize at an international competition. Students can get 3 million won, up to two times a year, and get 1 million won for additional publications and awards received that year.

“The two scholarships are additional rewards that scholars can get based on the outcome of their studies, and it encourages students to grow,” Kim said. “We thought that having those systems in place will really play a big role in influencing the academic performance of our scholars.”

Kim sat down with the Korea JoongAng Daily to talk about new opportunities the foundation aims to provide to international students and what qualities it looks for in its scholars.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Students selected for the Hyundai Motor Chung Mong-Koo Foundation's global scholarship pose for a photo during the scholarship award ceremony in September. [HYUNDAI MOTOR CHUNG MONG-KOO FOUNDATION]

Q. When students apply for the global scholarship, they are first screened by their university and then evaluated by the foundation. How does the two-step evaluation work and what factors does the foundation look for?

A.The university first looks into most of the academic factors, and then the candidates are sent to us. We do an online interview because our applicants hail from Korea and abroad, and we try to thoroughly understand what type of person the candidates are during the interview. We follow the practices of Chung Mong-koo, honorary chairman of Hyundai Motor Group, who valued an individual's potential when selecting and hiring people.

When funding scholarships, you need to think of things in the long run. You are essentially investing in a person, and we try to select people who can give back and contribute to society. During the interview, we do ask questions like why they want to come to Korea and what made them apply. But we also focus more on their vision, what they ultimately want to achieve and instances of growing from failure.

Career help is one of the most important support mechanisms for students. Does the foundation provide any career-related help?

We have a program called Apohs, or Advanced Program on Human Rights and Sustainable Development, and it offers internship opportunities to our scholars who want to work at international organizations. Selected students get 10-day training in Geneva and then work as interns for three months at the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development. This is the first year we've started the program, and we have two global scholarship recipients that are part of the program.

Does the foundation have any plans to expand the scholarship to cover more people?

Starting next year, we plan on creating a scholarship for undergraduate students. [The scholarship] will allow students to study as a visiting student for one year, and we will start by offering the scholarship to students in Indonesia. We will partner with universities in Indonesia to get applicants and allow them to study at major Korean universities for a year. Korean universities have summer and winter school programs, and students can also participate in them.

Like our global scholarship for master's and doctorate programs, the new scholarship will provide settlement fees and academic funding for a year. And since we have the global scholarship for master's and doctorate programs, we can provide [undergraduate visiting scholarship recipients]with more opportunities by offering extra points when they apply for the global scholarship.

The global scholarship is currently for nationals of eight Asean countries. Does the foundation have plans to expand that?

When we first started, we started [with Asean countries] because Korea has strong ties with the region and since there's a high demand to study in Korea. Also, they are developing countries, but have big potential to grow when given support. The scholarship is currently limited to students from Asean countries, but that's just part of our ongoing five-year plan. After that, we are going to discuss changes while considering its expansion.

The global scholarship started in 2020 and has been seeing its first cohort of master's graduates. Are there any plans to encourage networking among the alumni?

We are planning on arranging the first alumni reunion in Indonesia at the end of this year. About 20 of our graduates went back to Indonesia, and there's also new scholars that we will be recruiting for the spring semester next year. We want to make the alumni reunion an event where our alumni and new students can come together and talk about living in Korea and maybe even volunteer together as a group. We'll be starting with Indonesia because a lot of our scholars come from the country, but we plan on expanding it to other countries next year.

BY LEE TAE-HEE [lee.taehee2@joongang.co.kr]