Starting this year, as the government implements the Korean-style stipend program to support living expenses for STEM graduate students, dissatisfaction is growing among graduate students of the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), which had previously operated its own independent stipend system. Graduate students at KAIST have raised concerns about fairness, as they are excluded from the newly established stipends that offer more benefits, and there are differences in support for foreign students.
On the 19th, the KAIST Graduate Student Council held a meeting with the Youth Advisory Group of the Ministry of Science and ICT at the KAIST campus in Daejeon. The Youth Advisory Group is an organization created by the Ministry of Science and ICT to listen to the opinions of young people and reflect them in policies. Twenty members were selected from industry, academia, and research. The meeting focused mainly on discussions about improving the KAIST stipend.
Starting this year, the government will implement a Korean-style stipend program that guarantees living expenses of at least 800,000 won (master's) to 1.1 million won (doctoral) for graduate students participating in national research and development projects. About 50,000 STEM graduate students from over 30 universities are expected to receive support. The Ministry of Science and ICT plans to gradually expand the support structure into a program that targets all graduate students.
However, dissatisfaction is being voiced by KAIST, which has been running its own stipends for some time. Due to the broader coverage of the Korean-style stipend, KAIST students are expressing grievances that they are subjected to "reverse discrimination." The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, which operates its own stipend system, cannot receive the government's Korean-style stipend support.
Support for foreign graduate students is also an issue. The Korean-style stipend includes foreign students participating in national research projects, but KAIST has excluded foreign students from its stipend program. The KAIST Graduate Student Council asserted, "As the stipend system is expanded to apply to all STEM graduate students nationwide, it conflicts with KAIST's existing support system," and added, "Improvements are necessary."
During the meeting between the Youth Advisory Group and the KAIST Graduate Student Council, questions about the fundamental purpose of the stipend were raised. Currently, the stipends at KAIST, including those at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, include compensation for labor such as teaching assistant (TA) activities. The structure is such that graduate students must perform additional non-research-related work to receive the stipend. While the stipend is intended to support "graduate student living expenses," concerns were raised about the requirement to perform non-research-related tasks to qualify.
Lee Seul-gi, the council president, noted, "I believe that discussions about KAIST's stipends will progress as the Korean-style stipend is officially introduced this year," and added, "We will continuously discuss with the relevant agencies to prepare improvement measures." The Ministry of Science and ICT also stated that once the Korean-style stipend for general universities is established, it will subsequently promote the expansion and improvement of KAIST's stipend.