DUO-Korea


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Extension of 2023 DUO-Korea Fellowship Programme


1. General Description

2. Application and Selection Procedure

3. Instructions for DUO-Korea Application Form



1. General Description


CAUTION: If any application falls under the following 3 cases, the application is disqualified and will not be considered for selection. If such cases are founded after the selection, the Secretariat may still reserve the right to cancel the fellowship of both Korean/European students and request the reimbursement of the fellowship in full. Therefore, the contact persons of the institutions should carefully confirm that the applications do not fall under the following 3 cases.


Case 1. The transfer of credits is less than 10 credits / 20 ECTS (language training or sports courses are NOT counted)

Case 2. GPA/ECTS written on the application are different from those transcripts

Case 3. During the application period (2023 Spring term), the Korean student does not stay in Korea or the European student does not stay in Europe (leave of absence is allowed)


DUO-Korea Fellowship Programme was established in 2001 with the aim of promoting exchanges of people between Korea and 30 ASEM European countries on a balanced and permanent basis. In this respect, DUO-Korea requires that a PAIR (two persons) of students be exchanged in the framework of a cooperative project.


Definitions of students are as below:

● Undergraduate(bachelor) and Graduate(master) students who are currently enrolled in institutions in Korea or one of the 30 ASEM Europeans countries.

N.B.: All applicants shall maintain their "student status" at the time of application until the time they are engaged in exchange projects. A student who has already started the exchange before the application period is not eligible.


[30 ASEM European member countries]

Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the U.K.


1.1. Eligibility


Due to the unique nature of this program, the followings are required to be eligible:


Your exchange project fulfills all four requirements below:


1) A Korean institution and an European institution have established an academic cooperative agreement;

2) The Korean institution has selected a Korean national student enrolled at the Korean institution to send to the European institution, and such selection has been accepted by the European institution;

3) The same European institution has selected an ASEM European national student enrolled at the European institution to send to the Korean institution, and such selection has been accepted by the same Korean institution.

4) If the Korean student has already started the exchange or the European student has already started the exchange in Korea before the application period for DUO-Korea 2023, are not acceptable.


1.2. Duration and Funding


DUO-Korea 2023 is for exchange projects, which will start from August 2023 and end before August 2024 to avoid duplication of implementation period of exchange projects selected by DUO-Korea in the ensuing years.


The selection of DUO-Korea 2023 is made ONLY once a year. In this respect, those who are planning to exchange in Spring Semester of 2024(January-July 2024) shall apply for DUO-Korea 2023.


The duration and the amount of the fellowships are standardized as follows:

● 1 semester (or four months) for an amount of 8,000 Euro for both students in a pair (4,000 Euro each).

● Maximum duration for application is 1 semester (4 months, 120 days).


The exchange duration should be at least one semester. Exchange of less than one semester is NOT allowed. If a semester or stay period in the Korean/European institutions is longer than 4 months, the fellowship will be given for 4 months. If it is less than 4 months, the fellowship will be adjusted on a pro-rata basis.


2. Application and Selection Procedure

2.1 Application Period

Applications will be accepted from April 4(Tue) to May 19(Fri), 2023 local Korean time.
Applications submitted after May 19(Fri), 2023 will not be accepted.


2.2. Who Applies?


The educational institutions in Korea apply on behalf of two institutions. European institutions in partnership with Korean institutions shall cooperate fully with them in providing precise information of European applicants. Individuals wishing to apply are advised to contact the relevant offices ONLY (e.g. International Relations Offices) of the institutions to file an application for this program.

Professors or lecturers cannot be the contact persons for DUO-Korea 2023. ONLY a staff of the relevant office

(e.g. International Relations Offices) can be the contact person.


2.3. Documents for Submission

*All documents should be written in English. In regard to writing the application, please refer to 3. Instruction for Application Form in the following context or the DUO-Korea FAQ.


1. An Online Application

2. A copy of Cooperation Agreement (or Memorandum of Understanding for cooperation) between paired institutions OR declaration of intention to set up new cooperation agreement (ONLY valid one).

3. A copy of Valid Passport of paired applicants (a copy of National Registration Card for Koreans or Citizen Card for Europeans are acceptable)

4. A copy of Transcript of paired applicants (including the grades until fall semester 2022)

5. A Motivation Letter of paired applicants (max. 2 pages, A4)

*You may find the Motivation Letter Form at the banner of Forms on the ASEM-DUO website (http://www.asemduo.org)

2.4. Application Submission


1. Enter your ID and password on the LOGIN page to fill out an online application.

2. Korean institutions need to fill out the whole application including the information of European institutions.

3. The rest of the documents (cooperation agreement, passport copies, transcripts and motivation letters) can be uploaded in the step 5 of the application process.

4. Once completed, please make sure to submit your application by clicking the "submit" button. Korean institutions should get a confirmation email within 3 days after submission. If not, please contact the Secretariat via email.


※ Click JOIN US button to get an ID.

The ID only will be given to the contact person of the Korean Institution. If you don’t find the name of your institution, please contact the Secretariat to add your institution to the list. One institution will have ONLY ONE ID and there should be ONLY one contact person in the same Korean institution.


2.5. Selection Method


A Korean Selection Committee, comprising Korean experts in the field of educational exchange, will make the selection after the application deadline. The decision will be announced by June 2023.


The selection results will be notified on the ASEM-DUO website, and the Secretariat will ONLY directly inform contact persons/awardees with the hard copies of the notification of selection results. The form for awardees such as Letter of Acceptance could be downloaded at the banner of Forms on the ASEM-DUO website (www.asemduo.org).

2.6. Selection Criteria


New Exchange Projects which have not been selected until DUO-Korea 2022 shall be given priority in selection. Besides, the followings will be considered for selection;


1. Motivation letters

2. Courses to take in Korean/European institutions

3. Recommendation of institutions

4. GPA


2.7. Fellowship Grants


The DUO-Korea Fellowship will be transferred directly to awardees by Secretariat.

There are no restrictions in using the fellowship. It can finance the tuition, and living or travel expenses.


3. Instructions for DUO-Korea Application Form

3.1 Language Application

You should write your application in English.

3.2. How to write the Application Form


1) Step 1. – Korean Institution


The first box of ID number and Date of submission will be given after submission. Please, start from filling out information of Korean institution.


● Contact person means a regular staff of Korean institutions who arranges the exchange projects and is willing to communicate with the Secretariat in such events as verifying application details, monitoring exchanges and providing further information on the status of the exchange.

● Person of Exchange shall be any Korean national students who will participate in the exchange.

● Grade means how many academic years a Korean student has accomplished (you may include the spring semester of 2023).

● GPA means a grade which a Korean student has earned up to the fall semester of 2022

● In a box for Institutional criteria, please describe why you (or your institution) recommend the person of exchange for fellowship in detail.


2) Step 2. – European Institution


Please, provide information on the European institution involved in the exchange project.

*If your partner European Institution is not included, the contact person of the Korean Institution may contact the Secretariat to add the partner institution to the list.


● Contact person means a regular staff of European institutions who arranges the exchange project and is willing to communicate with the Secretariat in such events as verifying application details, monitoring exchange and providing further information on the status of the exchange.

● Person of Exchange shall be any ASEM European national students who will participate in the exchange.

● Grade means how many academic years a European student has accomplished (you may include the spring semester of 2023).

● ECTS means a whole ECTS that a European student has earned up to the fall semester of 2022.

● In a box for Institutional criteria, please describe why you (or your institution) recommend the person of exchange for fellowship in detail.

● Confirmation of Agreement with the European institution (TO BE SIGNED by the contact person at the Korean institution): he/she should confirm here by clicking on the “YES” button if the contact person in the European institution also agrees with this submission.


3) Step 3. – Description of Exchange Program


In this section, please describe the type, duration and purpose of exchange as instructed on the form.


● Type of exchange
Please check appropriate boxes to specify whether students for exchange are in undergraduate or in graduate study. If it doesn't coincide with the grade has written in Step 1 or Step 2, please check it based on the current status and specify in detail.

● Duration of Exchange
Please write the exchange duration on a semester basis in accordance with the academic calendars of the destination institution. If a person of exchange will engage in the exchange for the whole year, please choose the semester would like to apply for DUO-Korea 2023.

● Purpose of Exchange
Please, specify what the purpose of the exchange is and fill in how many credits/ECTS will be completed at the destination institution. If your purpose of the exchange is other than the Transfer of Credits, please specify in detail.


4) Step 4. – Exchange Details/ Source of Finance


● Exchange Details

Person of exchange needs to fill in the courses which will be taken during their exchange period. On a semester basis, a minimum of 10 credits/20 ECTS must be taken up at the Korean/European institutions.


CAUTION: Person of Exchanges need to complete all courses as written on the application. If actual courses happen to differ from the courses listed on the application, the contact person or persons of exchange are responsible for informing the Secretariat for approval; if this procedure is not taken beforehand, fellowship award to both students is subject to cancellation or consequent reimbursement.

Also, intensive language courses and sports courses are not honored in this program.


● Source of Finance

If this exchange project has any other source of finance, please elaborate on it.

*Support from institutions is allowed. However, if you receive a fellowship from other private institutions or governments, you need to specify the detail, so that the Selection Committee will take this into consideration.


If double-funded cases are found without informing the Secretariat after the selection, the Secretariat may still reserve the right to cancel the fellowship of both Korean/European students and request the reimbursement of the fellowship in full.


5) Step 5. –Certification of Authenticity


A copy of cooperation agreement, passport copies, transcripts, motivation letters of paired applicants should be attached.


● All documents should be submitted in English version. If there is no official English version of each document, applicants need to submit translated version along with the original document.

● Transcript: Please make sure to update the whole transcript including the Grading Scale of your Originating Institution.

● The preferred file formats are JPG. or PDF. Please set the name of the attachment files as a Name of document_Surname_Given name order (e.g. Passport_John_Smith).


After completing all relevant items in an appropriate manner on the application, please write the date and the names of the contact person of the Korean institution and the president or Director of the Korean institution in the section of Certification of Authenticity. And then, please submit it to the Secretariat by clicking the “submit” button.


The original version including the signatures and official stamp of the Korean Institution will be requested, only if your exchange project has been selected.



3.3. After the Submission: Acknowledgement


The acknowledgment of submission will be sent to the contact person in the Korean institutions via e-mail within 3 working days after submission.

If the application is approved, the ID number will be given to each application and the contact persons of Korean institutions can print it as the PDF version.

However, if there is any application with incomplete or improper information, the Secretariat will request further information through the contact persons of Korean institutions individually. And you need to submit the revised application through the online system again within 48 hours. If we do not receive the revised one within 48 hours, we regard it as a notice of abandonment.