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's online window closed on 30 September 2026; the university track stays open at some universities into November. GKS-G is not announced yet. Here are the confirmed dates, the two tracks, and what comes next.
Is GKS 2027 open yet?
Partly. The 2027 GKS-U embassy track closed on 30 September 2026 at 18:00, Korea Standard Time, and the guideline had embassies announce first-round results by 16 October and set 30 October for passers' original documents to reach NIIED. The university track runs to November 2026 on each university's own schedule, and embassy-track applicants who did not pass the first round may apply once through it. GKS-G (graduate) is not announced yet; in recent cycles it has followed around February.
GKS 2027 results: when each round is announced and where to check
Each round of GKS 2027 selection is announced in its own way, and not all of them on the Study in Korea website. These dates and methods are from sections III and VI of the 2027 GKS-U guideline; times are Korea Standard Time.
Embassy Track
| Stage | When | Where to check |
|---|---|---|
| First round (embassy) | By October 16, 2026 | Your embassy notifies you individually, and the result also appears in My Page on the Study in Korea website. |
| Second round (NIIED) | November 2026 | NIIED posts the list of successful candidates on the Study in Korea GKS notice board; check your own result in My Page. |
| Third round (universities) | By December 23, 2026 at 6:00 PM | Each university you applied to notifies you individually; check your own result in My Page. |
| Choosing your university | By December 29, 2026 at 6:00 PM | Choose one of the universities that accepted you, in the Study in Korea system. If none accepted you, you are out of the program. |
| Final result | January 7, 2027 (expected) | NIIED posts the list of 2027 scholars on the GKS notice board; check your own result in My Page. |
| Invitation letter and entry guide | During January 2027 | Sent by NIIED to the personal email address you gave in your application. |
The Korean edition of the guideline adds that on the Embassy Track every status after you submit can be checked in My Page.
University Track
| Stage | When | Where to check |
|---|---|---|
| First round (university) | November 2026 (Korean edition: by November 13, 2026, expected; varies by university) | The university you applied to notifies you individually. |
| Second round (NIIED) | December 2026 | NIIED posts the list of successful candidates on the Study in Korea GKS notice board. |
| Final result | January 7, 2027 (expected) | NIIED posts the list of 2027 scholars on the GKS notice board. |
| Invitation letter and entry guide | During January 2027 | Sent by NIIED to the personal email address you gave in your application. |
The University Track has no third round: NIIED's second-round result decides. The guideline's University Track table lists no My Page check; the first-round result comes as the university's own notice.
2027 GKS-U Application Guidelines (NIIED, 9 September 2026)
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After the Embassy Track first-round result
Passed: only first-round passers send their original documents, and they must reach NIIED by October 30, 2026. Your embassy collects and forwards them, so it sets its own, earlier date.
Not passed: the guideline lets you apply once more through the University Track in this cycle, but only where a university's window is still open. A backup candidate counts as passed and cannot.
University Track deadlines, university by university
Rejected on 16 October is not the end of this cycle
The Study in Korea GKS notice board, where NIIED posts the lists
Selected for 2027 GKS-U? What to do before you arrive
For 2027 GKS-U scholars, two dates come first: any new TOPIK certificate by December 24, 2026 and the graduation certificate by December 31, 2026. Final result expected on January 7, 2027.
- Graduation certificate by December 31, 2026
- Expected graduates: certificate and transcript by December 31, 2026, or the acceptance is cancelled. The FAQ adds: every 2027 scholar's certificate, apostilled or consular-confirmed, via the first-round embassy or university.
- New TOPIK level 5 or 6 by December 24, 2026
- Reached TOPIK level 5 or 6 after applying? Send it to NIIED by December 24, 2026 (English file: by email) and the degree starts in March 2027. Counting sittings: PBT 96–109, IBT 4–16.
- Changing field or university
- No change of university, under any circumstances. A change of field is “not permitted” in the English file, “strictly restricted” in the Korean one.
Renouncing, certificate copies, residents, refunds
- Giving up the scholarship
- A signed letter to the embassy or university that ran your first round; once NIIED processes it, it is final. Reapplying: barred for 3 years in the Korean file; the English file says “in the future” in one section and “three years” in another.
- Graduation certificates to bring
- The university, the visa and immigration may each want an apostilled or consular-confirmed copy: several are “required” in the English file, spares “recommended” in the Korean one.
- Already living in Korea (D-2, D-4, other visas)
- Ask immigration whether you can change status without leaving Korea (Korean file: beforehand; English file: right after the final result). Scholars living in Korea on the final-result day get no entry airfare.
- Withdrawing in the first 3 months
- Withdraw within 3 months of enrolling and you repay everything received since selection, entry airfare included.
Source: the 2027 GKS-U guideline, English file of September 28, 2026, Korean file of September 14, 2026.
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 – early July
- 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. For 2027 the Embassy Track had one online application window for every country, 15 to 30 September 2026, and your embassy then sets its own date for original documents; each university sets its own University Track 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's first-round results were due by Friday 16 October 2026. Applicants who did not pass 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, and some closed before the embassy result arrived, so check that the university you would fall back to is still taking applications.
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 — after the university's own first round, NIIED's second round decides — and the deadline is set by that university, anywhere from early October to late November.
University Track deadlines, university by university
Embassy Track 2027: your country's places and embassy
What to prepare for the next stage
The GKS-U embassy track closed on 30 September 2026. The guideline set 30 October for first-round passers' original documents to reach NIIED, so embassies set earlier dates of their own; if you apply through the university track, each university's own deadline applies. 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.
Every GKS guideline file, its revisions and past yearsWhen does GKS 2027 open?
The 2027 GKS-U embassy track took online applications through the Study in Korea website from 15 September 2026 at 11:00 to 30 September 2026 at 18:00, Korea Standard Time; that window has closed. 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's single online window (15 to 30 September 2026, Korea Standard Time) has closed. What remains is the university track, where each university sets its own deadline between September and November and most want paper documents delivered by that date — check the university's own notice. If you applied through an embassy, its first-round results were due by 16 October; if you passed, your embassy sets its own date for original documents, earlier than NIIED's 30 October.
When are the GKS 2027 results announced, and where do I check them?
On the Embassy Track, embassies were to announce the first round by October 16, 2026: your embassy notifies you, and the result also appears in My Page on the Study in Korea website. NIIED's second round follows in November 2026 and the universities' third round by December 23, 2026 at 6:00 PM; the final list is expected on January 7, 2027, and NIIED posts the second-round and final lists on the Study in Korea GKS notice board. On the University Track, the university announces its first round in November 2026 and NIIED's second round comes in December 2026.
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.