The Admission Office of KAIST has been recruiting prospective international students, and as part of their efforts, they have been visiting such regions as the Americas, Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and Africa. In 2014, the office focused on nations in Africa, visiting Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, and Tanzania.
The visiting KAIST representatives, consisting of faculty, international students, and staff members, hosted an admission conference for high school students in those four nations, offering information on KAIST education and research, as well as introducing Korea.
As a result, a total of 37 African students (5 undergraduate and 32 graduate students) were admitted to KAIST for the 2014 fall semester. Among them was Gemechu Bekele Tolossa (picture below) from Ethiopia, who received the highest score at the Ethiopian college entrance examination in 2013. Tolossa had enrolled in a medical school at Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia, and was at the top of his class, but he left the school in order to apply for KAIST.
When asked about his plan, Tolossa said, “I would like to study engineering and brain science at KAIST. KAIST offers me an excellent environment for learning and research, and I would like to make the most of it.”
KAIST accepted 206 international students this year (45 undergraduate and 161 graduate students), brining the number of international students at 540, approximately 5% of the students enrolled at the university.
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