Close to 290 people have been selected for a government-sponsored Global Ph.D. Fellowship program, which is introduced for the first time this year. The program aims to raise the quality of Korean doctorate programs to a world class level.

The Education Ministry and the National Research Foundation of Korea say they selected 287 doctorate students at 22 domestic universities out of the 12-hundred applicants.

Fifty-four of the selected students are in the humanities and social sciences fields. The remaining 233 are focusing on science and technology.

For two years, they will receive 60 million won in research funds. The ministry will also form a consulting team made up of the best brains in each field to support the students in academics and research.

The Global Ph.D. Fellowship program’s scholarship aid is designed to help doctoral students better focus on conducting long-term quality research rather than get distracted by being financially burdened. Ph.D. students are often known to be juggling too many projects to earn money for tuition and as a result unable to concentrate on their dissertations.