GKS guide
GKS 2027 Application Timeline
When does the Global Korea Scholarship (GKS, formerly KGSP) open, and what are the 2027 deadlines? NIIED published the 2027 GKS-U guidelines on 9 September 2026: the embassy track takes online applications from 15 to 30 September 2026. GKS-G is not announced yet. Here are the confirmed dates, the two tracks, and what to prepare.
Is GKS 2027 open yet?
GKS-U is. NIIED published the 2027 GKS-U application guidelines on 9 September 2026, and the embassy track takes online applications from 15 September 2026 at 11:00 to 30 September 2026 at 18:00, Korea Standard Time. The university track runs from September to November 2026, on each university's own schedule. GKS-G (graduate) is not announced yet; in recent cycles it has followed around February.
What is already known to change for 2027
A third first-party document speaks to the 2027 rules rather than the 2027 calendar. On 8 September 2026 the Ministry of Education published its Innovation Strategy for Nurturing International Student Talent, and its scholarship chapter sets out three GKS changes dated to 2027. None of them is a quota, a grade requirement or a deadline — those are set by NIIED's guideline, published the following day.
- A larger science-and-engineering share
- The strategy expands selection through the GKS R&D track. It records the science-and-engineering share of GKS master's and doctoral scholars as 40.9% in 2025 and 43% in 2026, and sets 45% as the 2027 target; the same paper notes the R&D track already sets aside about 300 places a year. A target and a standing allocation — neither is a published 2027 quota.
- A master's scholar may continue to a doctorate
- From 2027 the strategy would let selected science-and-engineering master's scholars with strong research output — SCI, SCIE or SSCI papers, registered patents — keep GKS support into a doctorate. The current rule restricts further support for someone who has already held a GKS scholarship, so this reverses it for that group. A research-performance bonus for the strongest results is created alongside it.
- Certified departments get scholarship priority
- From 2027 the ministry certifies departments that train overseas talent for a region's strategic industries — up to 10 a year, capped at 30 in total, reviewed every two years. The stated benefit of certification is priority in the allocation of government scholarship students, so which departments a future cycle opens is meant to shift toward them.
Two cautions. This is a strategy paper, not the GKS guideline: it changes nothing you can apply for today, and its visa item — extra points on the F-2-7 top-talent visa for GKS science and engineering graduates — is described as under discussion with the Ministry of Justice, not decided. The figures above are the ministry's own targets. The numbers that bind an application are the ones in NIIED's 2027 guideline, published on 9 September 2026.
GKS-U · Undergraduate
- Announcement
- 9 September 2026
- Application
- Embassy 15–30 Sep · University Sep–Nov
- Screening & interview
- Embassy 1st 16 Oct · University 1st Nov · NIIED late Nov · 3rd 23 Dec
- Final results
- 7 January 2027 (expected)
- Arrival & language year
- Following spring
GKS-G · Graduate
- Announcement
- February
- Application
- February–March
- Screening & interview
- April–June
- Final results
- Late June
- Arrival & language year
- Typically autumn
Prepare your GKS documents by application stage
The GKS-U row is the confirmed 2027 schedule, from the guidelines NIIED published on 9 September 2026. The GKS-G row is the typical months from recent cycles and is not a confirmed 2027 date — that guideline is not out. Embassy-track deadlines can fall earlier than the closing date shown, because each embassy sets its own local schedule.
Two tracks, and they do not share a deadline
GKS is applied for through one of two routes: the Embassy Track, through the Korean embassy in your country, and the University Track, directly to a Korean university. Embassy deadlines are set per country and are usually earlier than the university deadline, so a single date quoted online is often not the date that applies to you. Check your local Korean embassy page alongside the notice board.
The track changes the paperwork too — but only at graduate level. For GKS-U the two tracks ask for an identical document list, so the choice is about where you apply, not what you collect. For GKS-G the research documents are University Track only, and GKS-G asks for ten application forms against GKS-U's seven.
Rejected on 16 October is not the end of this cycle
The embassy track announces its first-round result by Friday 16 October 2026. Applicants who fail it may apply again through the university track in the same cycle — NIIED says the university track schedule was adjusted to allow exactly that, and its window runs September to November.
Two conditions decide whether this is open to you. Embassy track applicants who passed the first round, backup candidates included, cannot apply again through the university track. And each university sets its own deadline, so check the announcement of the university you would fall back to before 16 October — some close before the embassy result arrives.
It is not the same application with a different envelope. The university track takes ONE university and a single department, where the embassy track let you name three, so the choice matters more and a safe department matters more than a famous name. There is no third round either — the university's own decision is the last one — and the deadline is set by that university, in November.
What to prepare while the window is open
The GKS-U embassy track closes on 30 September 2026, and nothing below can be started later than the office that issues it allows. These are the parts of a GKS application that repeat every cycle — and the parts that depend on other people's offices rather than on your own schedule.
Document authentication
Certificates issued abroad are submitted with an apostille, or with consular confirmation where the Apostille Convention does not apply, and a document written in a language other than English or Korean needs a certified translation. A certificate issued online is not exempt from the apostille. The 2027 GKS-U guideline states these rules and the most recent GKS-G guideline states them too — and the offices that issue and stamp these papers are open now.
TOPIK
GKS recognises a defined range of TOPIK sittings rather than any certificate you happen to hold, and the recognised window is published per track, with separate ranges for the paper test and IBT. A sitting outside your track's window does not count — which is the part applicants tend to discover far too late to fix.
The GPA baseline
The academic-grade requirement is the one condition you can test today, with numbers you already have. In the most recent guidelines it is identical for GKS-U and GKS-G, so a graduate applicant is not held to a higher bar than an undergraduate one.
Your Study Plan and Personal Statement
The one part of the application that is entirely on your own schedule — and the part most applicants start last. They are two separate documents on two separate forms, and a first draft is not the version you submit. Leave enough time to put it aside, come back to it, and have someone read it before the deadline.
How to write the Study Plan and Personal Statement
Having your draft read by a professional editor
Leave time for that reading, and book it early for a second reason: editing is priced by how fast you need it back, so the same draft costs several times more in the deadline week than it does two weeks out. Count the turnaround days back from the deadline your embassy or university publishes — that earlier date, not the deadline, is when your draft has to be finished. A university writing centre is free and is the best option if you have one.
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The GKS-U requirements described here are from the 2027 guidelines published on 9 September 2026. For GKS-G this describes the most recently published cycle, which is the best available guide until NIIED posts the 2027 graduate guidelines.
Recent cycles (a record, not a prediction)
The 2026 cycle is the one we have read end to end. NIIED posted the GKS-U call on 5 September 2025, and its guideline set two deadlines: 17 October for the embassy track and 31 October for the university track. The guideline gave no opening date at all — each embassy and each university set its own. The 2027 guideline changed that for the embassy track: one central online window for everyone, 15 to 30 September 2026, which is sixteen days against the 2026 cycle's six weeks. On the graduate side, the 2026 GKS-G final result was announced on 1 July 2026, and the 2027 graduate call has not been posted.
Is GKS 2027 announced yet?
Yes, for undergraduates. NIIED posted the 2027 GKS-U application guidelines to the Study in Korea notice board on 9 September 2026, together with the application forms and the university information files. GKS-G (graduate) has not been announced. Check any 2027 date you read elsewhere against that notice board — third-party “2027” pages are often an earlier cycle retitled.
When does GKS 2027 open?
The 2027 GKS-U embassy track opens on 15 September 2026 at 11:00 and closes on 30 September 2026 at 18:00, Korea Standard Time, applied for online through the Study in Korea website. The university track runs from September to November 2026, with each university setting its own deadline and submission method. GKS-G is not published yet; in recent cycles it has opened around February.
How do I not miss the GKS deadline?
For 2027 the embassy track has one central online window — 15 to 30 September 2026, Korea Standard Time — but each Korean embassy announces its own first-round schedule and may want your documents locally before that. So check your local embassy page as well as the Study in Korea GKS notice board. Applying early leaves room for documents and a possible re-application through the university track.
Do you need TOPIK for GKS? GKS-U vs GKS-G: which program? Read the full GKS application guide Who cannot apply for GKS 2027 — the exclusion list See the GKS GPA conversion table
Source GKS annual cycle (NIIED / Study in Korea) · 2026 GKS-G final result noticeLast verified Independent summary. The GKS-U dates come from the 2027 application guidelines NIIED published on 9 September 2026; the GKS-G dates are the typical cycle and are not confirmed. Deadlines vary by track and by country — always confirm against the Study in Korea GKS notice board and your embassy.