Samsung Global Scholarship Program

Samsung Global Scholarship Program (Samsung GSP or GSP) is a talent program of Samsung Electronics (SEC). Focusing on the goal of having talented personnel with strong business skills, leadership potential and career aspirations, SEC recognized the compelling need for high-quality leaders, hence the Global Scholarship Program was created to nurture a very selectively compiled group of individuals, who later in the long run might become leaders ("Future Global Leaders") of the various SEC subsidiaries around the world, replacing the Korean-national management layer (what is the usual practice at the chaebol). It differs from Samsung Scholarship, formerly known as Samsung Lee Kun-hee Scholarship for supporting exceptionally talented Korean university students for global educations in mostly STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) fields.

Divided into two paths, both programs originally selected participants who demonstrate academic excellence and leadership potential and provides them with unique opportunities for further professional development. Starting from 2011, GSP-SKK instead contains employees working in the subsidiaries. The program also provides young leaders with a unique international network through which they can share ideas, learn from established leaders, work collaboratively and address global challenges. By exposing participants to the complex issues and opportunities arising from an increasingly interdependent global economy, the program aims to expand perspectives and enhance skills critical for leadership in a changing world.

Scholarship program

Each year 15-25 individuals from different parts of the globe are offered to take part in the program that has two distinctive paths: an engineer and an MBA track:

GSP (M.S. Program) through Seoul National University (SNU)
GSP (M.B.A. Program) through SungKyunKwan University's Graduate School of Business (SKK GSB) [in collaboration with MIT Sloan]

The (Global) MBA program is notable for its diversity and pioneer nature. It was built and now run together with MIT Sloan since its foundation, and it was the first global English-only MBA program in Korea. Selected GSP students currently study for three semesters. It used to be four semesters, including a possibility of spending a semester at one of SKK GSB's top partner universities in the U.S. (MIT Sloan, Columbia, Northwestern's Kellogg, Michigan's Ross, Dartmouth's Tuck or Indiana's Kelly). SKK GSB Global MBA has been recently ranked by the Financial Times as the #1 MBA in Korea, Top 10 in Asia and 45th worldwide.

The significance of the program can also be seen from the wide range of students who, as it was already in the first years, came from the leading companies including Cheil Communications, Amore Pacific, Woori Bank, POSCO, SK, Kyobo, Everland, Bosch, KTF and several Samsung subsidiaries.

After graduation, participants are offered various responsibilities at Samsung Electronics and although some elected to follow a different career path (at management consultancies, for instance) many participants stayed with SEC.