Pohang University of Science and Technology Admission 2027

Admission at a glance

POSTECH (Pohang University of Science and Technology) is a small, research-intensive private university in Pohang, long known for educating only a few hundred undergraduates a year, almost all Korean, alongside a larger international graduate student body. That changed with the Fall 2026 intake: POSTECH's own announcement describes recruiting international undergraduate freshmen for the first time since the university's founding, admitting them into its fully English-taught curriculum and giving every one of them, like every domestic freshman, a full first-semester scholarship covering tuition, which POSTECH describes as the same tuition waiver domestic students receive.

The first cycle, for Fall 2026 entry, ran through the Korean government's own Study in Korea application portal from 26 September to 3 November 2025, with POSTECH announcing admission decisions on 5 January 2026. POSTECH has stated it plans to expand to twice-yearly admission, in March and September, beginning with the 2027 admission year, though at the time of this review the exact Spring 2027 and Fall 2027 dates had not yet been published; POSTECH held an online information session about the Fall 2026/Spring 2027 cycle on 28 April 2025. Review is by document screening only, based on academic strength and potential, with no fixed quota and two eligibility routes, non-Korean applicants with non-Korean parents, and Korean nationals who completed their entire primary and secondary education abroad.

Because POSTECH gives every incoming freshman, domestic and international, a full scholarship covering tuition for the first semester (continuing through later semesters if the student keeps a qualifying GPA), this review records POSTECH's undergraduate tuition as zero for international students rather than a nominal sticker price found on no confirmed page. The application fee, confirmed for POSTECH's graduate international admission at KRW 80,000 (USD 80), is used here as the clearest available reference since a separate undergraduate figure was not found on an official page.

Requirements

Bachelor

Applicants must be either a foreign national whose parents are both also foreign nationals, or a Korean national who completed the whole of primary and secondary education abroad. Selection is by comprehensive document review only, with no entrance exam and no fixed quota confirmed for the pilot Fall 2026 cohort.

Master's and PhD

POSTECH's graduate schools, including the GIFT (Graduate Institute of Ferrous Technology) programme and other departments, publish their own admission requirements; a relevant bachelor's degree (or master's for doctoral applicants) and an English proficiency score (TOEFL iBT 79 or IELTS 6.0 for GIFT) are the general baseline.

Full requirements and documents