On September 10, an information and question session was held by the Academic Planning Team regarding the newly introduced Stipend program for graduate students, which has had a year-long testing period and officially started this month. The program was conceived last year to address the high number of concerns submitted by graduate students regarding their rights, research environments, and financial support.
The scholarship-like program ensures that the amount of financial support received by graduate students meets a certain threshold. This threshold is determined to provide for basic living needs of the students.
MS and PhD integrated program students will receive funding for a total of 10 semesters, where semesters 1-2 count as MS and 3-10 as PhD.
The disparity between the two types of scholarship comes from additional fees such as tuition fees and fees for principal investigator (PI) related work that apply to KAIST scholarship students.
To be eligible for the program, students must satisfy the conditions in several categories: they must be an MS, PhD, or integrated program student of the College of Natural Sciences, College of Life Science and Bioengineering or College of Engineering, within the enrollment duration limit, and be either a recipient of a government or KAIST-sponsored scholarship.
Exceptions include those who are in dispatch without leave of absence, taking part in tutoring activities or technical research personnel training, those facing suspension or negligence, and those who are not participating in any duties. Furthermore, KAIST scholarship students who are already receiving support for working expenses exceeding the threshold will also be exempted from the Stipend support.
While the financial support received by eligible candidates will be monitored by the school, those who are not will still have the chance to receive support from their PI.
The amount to be received will be determined on the 20th of each month. During the 20th to the 24th, if the determined amount does not meet the predetermined threshold, each PI will be notified of the situation and will have to request approval from the department head for additional financial support on the school’s end. Even if the PI does not request approval, the department head will still be able to enact a bulk approval. On the 25th, the Stipend and school’s funding will be received by students.
Along with the Stipend program comes a revamped pooling system, where funding for research was previously managed and distributed by the PI. The new system alters the management to a departmental scale. While many have expressed their concerns regarding the potential reduction in funding of certain labs due to this change, it has been stated that the funding will essentially be unchanged.
As the Stipend program stabilizes, the Academic Planning Team plans to include more students and colleges by expanding the eligibility conditions in the future.
