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Seoul

South Korea · Asia-Pacific

Electronics, automotive and battery R&D at Samsung/SK/Hyundai scale, plus games and entertainment industries that export worldwide.

Who this suits, and who it doesn’t

Suits you if you want engineering or technology at industrial scale and will genuinely commit to learning Korean. Look elsewhere if long hours and steep workplace hierarchy would wear you down. That is a documented and widely discussed part of the culture, not a rumour.

The catch, and the way in

The catch

Korean is expected for most roles, and working hours are long by European standards.

The way in

The Global Korea Scholarship covers tuition, a stipend and a full year of language study. It is one of the few complete rides open to students from the CIS. Compass models Korean admissions.

Living there

What living here is actually like

Dense, fast, and extraordinarily well served: transport, delivery and internet all work at a standard that recalibrates expectations. It's very safe and open late. The social side is more demanding. Work and university culture are hierarchical, age determines how you address people, and after-hours socialising with colleagues is closer to obligatory than optional.

How the money works

Living costs are moderate for a major Asian capital, with housing deposits the awkward part: the traditional rental system asks for large lump sums up front, and student housing is the usual way around it. The Global Korea Scholarship removes tuition and adds a stipend, which for students from this region is what makes the country accessible at all.Described in shape rather than figures on purpose: rents and salaries move every year and we cannot keep numbers true, but what is expensive and what quietly eats income stays true for far longer.

The language you actually need

Korean is expected for most employment, and the scholarship's full language year exists because of that. English-taught degree programmes are available at the larger universities, but treating English as sufficient for the career afterwards is the mistake people make here.

The work that clusters here

The kinds of work Seoul is a route into, each with what it actually involves, and what the catch is.

Who is named here

Not a ranking and not in order of merit. These are the places a subject is actually studied and taught at in this city, so you have something to search for.

  • Seoul National University

    • Engineering
    • Natural Sciences
    • Humanities & Social Sciences
    • Law
    • Medicine & Health

    Some English-taught programmes

  • Korea University

    • Business & Economics
    • Law
    • Humanities & Social Sciences

    Some English-taught programmes

  • Yonsei University

    • Business & Economics
    • Medicine & Health
    • Humanities & Social Sciences

    Some English-taught programmes

Language of teaching moves within a cycle, so check it on the university’s own page for your own entry year.