Competitiveness of graduate schools forms the foundation of national competitiveness and it is a key to securing qualified manpower.
In order to secure the competitiveness of graduate schools and qualified research manpower, it is imperative that countries invest in higher education, and that stable financial assistance is provided to doctoral students.
70% of doctoral students in general graduate schools bear the tuition fees by themselves or with support from family.
Among graduate students in the major Korean graduate schools, scholarship as a proportion of tuition fee is 48% and this is significantly short of the U.S. average of 76.8%.
As in the leading universities around the globe, the fellowship system needs to take root in Korea.