KFAS

The Korea Foundation for Advanced Studies is a non-profit foundation established in 1974 by Chey Jong-hyon, the late founder and former Chairman of SK Group. Its primary goal is to cultivate talented individuals to fulfill Chey Jong-hyon’s one-hundred-year plan to resolve societal issues and suggest directions for development.

KFAS has created several scholarship and educational programs to fulfill its mission. Early on, KFAS established the Overseas PhD Scholarship Program, where each year it accepts outstanding college students into the program designed to nurture talented students into globally renowned scholars. 

Additionally, the Foundation has initiated its international academic exchange scholarship program aimed at grooming leaders who play important roles to advance Asia’s future. Wishing to secure measures for promoting social prosperity, KFAS has established a network of academic cooperation in Asia and sponsors academic research and exchange between international and Korean scholars. 

Beginning in 2010, KFAS initiated the Knowledge Sharing Project to promote societal development and a higher quality of life. In 2020, KFAS launched its Talent Innovation Project to nurture the next generation of global society leaders.

Scholarship

The KFAS Overseas PhD Scholarship Program selects Korean students with exceptional talent from the social sciences, natural sciences, and information and communications fields, and supports their doctoral studies at leading universities overseas. 

KFAS programs in its Talent Innovation Project support other scholarship endeavors, including: 

• Forest of Talent (formerly the Undergraduate Scholarship program) – aiming to facilitate ideal environments for the most outstanding Korean undergraduate students to pursue their scholarly inquiries
• Forest of Learning (formerly the Classical Chinese Studies Scholarship program) – providing Korean students with the necessary support to become leaders in the field of East Asian studies

In 2021, KFAS reorganized part of its Graduate Student Scholarship program to create an East Asian Research Scholarship. The new program supports outstanding Korean students in the fields of East Asian studies and helps them complete doctoral degrees at Korean universities. 

As of September 2023, these diverse scholarship endeavors have produced a total of 861 doctoral degree recipients, and those KFAS alumni have become active leaders across diverse fields both in and beyond academia. 

International Academic Exchange

KFAS began initiating international academic exchange programs in 2000 to keep pace with a global era of pluralization and to jointly pursue collective prosperity in the new millennium. Along with international exchange programs that support academic research and cooperation with scholars in Korea and abroad, the Foundation’s international academic exchange endeavors include the Asian Research Centers, which aim to establish a network of scholarly cooperation in Asia by supporting the academic research of scholars based in the region; and, the International Scholarship Forum, which provides a space of international exchange where world-renowned authorities from various academic disciplines join together with global leaders to discuss worldwide issues and seek new methodologies for addressing them. In 2018, these international academic exchange endeavors were transferred from KFAS to the Chey Institute for Advanced Studies where they continue to be advanced today.

Knowledge Sharing

Since 2010, KFAS has led information knowledge sharing projects to establish knowledge networks to advance academia and society. Two key programs are Dream Lectures and Dream Debate. 

In the Dream Lectures program, KFAS PhD alumni from various fields give lectures to middle and high school students to help young Koreans realize their visions and map out their career paths. With the Dream Debate program, KFAS aims to promote the creativity and growth of a healthy debate culture and encourage students’ problem-solving abilities.

KFAS also sponsors projects promoting intellectual exchange. Its Knowledge Festival All Seasons program gives scholarship recipients the chance to meet with leaders from various areas of society, including many KFAS alumni, to exchange ideas and develop scholarly networks. Additionally, the Discovery of Review podcast and Alumni Lecture Series offers a diverse range of knowledge sharing content to the public.