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Over the past few decades, South Korea has increasingly sought to attract international talent. Every year, hundreds of students are invited to study in the country on a competitive scholarship provided by the government. Upon graduation, students are equipped with a tertiary degree, as well as knowledge of the Korean language and culture. This study examines the determinants of intention to stay in South Korea to work or study after graduation, using a 2019 survey of Global Korea Scholarship recipients (n = 524). We draw upon literature in student mobility and examine determinants of two-step migration, including satisfaction with the scholarship program, university experiences, social integration, and life in the host country. Results from the statistical analysis show that academic satisfaction, social adjustment, and satisfaction with life in South Korea are positively associated with participants' intentions to stay in the country to work or study after graduation. The findings highlight the role of academic institutions and host communities in influencing students' poststudy plans and point to the need for policy measures that approach talent retention with simultaneous attention to integration and satisfaction, both within and beyond campus.

International student-mobility programs are one of the core programs countries employ as part of their public diplomacy portfolio. Policymakers assume that sponsored foreign students would develop positive beliefs about and emotions towards the host country, which in turn would lead to favorable behavior towards it. However, evaluations of such programs from a public diplomacy perspective are rare and Western-centric. In this paper, we analyze how Global Korea Scholarship students' cognitive and affective evaluations of Korea influence their country image and word-of-mouth about Korea; i.e., in how they voluntarily share their experiences in Korea with others. We use variance-based partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to analyze the data obtained from surveying 1107 scholarship holding foreign students. Our findings suggest that students evaluate Korea most positively in terms of its culture and nature, while their evaluations are not as positive in terms of the integrity and values of the country. For positive word-of-mouth, affection towards Korea plays the most significant role, while for negative word-of-mouth, the students' beliefs about the country's integrity and values had the most influence. Our findings help identify the strengths and weaknesses in Korea's country image which can, in turn, inform and shape policies accordingly.

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