The Bachelor Plus Program is a special program of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) to support establishing four-year bachelor courses with an integrated year abroad. It is aimed to increase the mobility, internationalization and exchange of students who thereby acquire particular interdisciplinary and pre-vocational qualifications. Although these courses lead to a Bachelor degree from the

home university, the skills acquired during their stay abroad will be appropriately identified through a separate Diploma Supplement and additional documents from the host institution. The program started in 2009 and is financially being backed by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and grants structural support for planning, elaborating and introducing the degree program as well as scholarships for students within a five-year frame.

In spring 2011, IKS-FU successfully applied for the program and is now one out of the 65 projects that are granted support from the BMBF Fund to establish a four-year bachelor course with two integrated semesters at selected partner universities. Having started to receive the support in October 2011, the IKS is preparing to launch its program “Integrated Korean Studies” by working out legal and functional structures. In comparison to the existing three-year bachelor course, the advantage of the new program

lies in the staying abroad for two semesters, which will include intensive language training, regular classes in cultural studies, social science or economics as well as an internship to gain practice-oriented knowledge without lengthening the course duration of four years. The year abroad will help the students to gain a deeper cultural understanding of Korea, to nurture their research ability and to develop their soft skills. Another advantage can be seen in the four-year duration of the program, which corresponds

to the Korean bachelor system and improves the job opportunities for graduates in Korea.

In the fall semester 2012, the first students from IKS will be sent to Korea via this program: in concrete either to the Sogang, the Yonsei or to the Ewha Womans University in Seoul.