PhD in Department of Biological Sciences

At Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), tuition is 7,680,000 KRW per year.

Biological sciences study living organisms and life processes at levels ranging from molecules and cells to ecosystems, covering fields such as molecular biology, genetics, cell biology, neuroscience, and ecology. The Department of Biological Sciences at the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) offers a combined master's and doctorate program for students pursuing research careers in the life sciences. Students typically complete graduate coursework in core biological disciplines before joining a faculty laboratory to conduct research on topics such as gene regulation, disease mechanisms, neuroscience, or ecological systems, working toward a dissertation that presents original findings. Graduates pursue careers in academic research, biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, government research institutes, and increasingly in fields such as bioinformatics and computational biology, where the ability to interpret large biological datasets is valued. The program is based in Ulsan, South Korea, and spans twelve semesters as a combined master's and doctoral track, with intakes in March and August. Instruction and research supervision are conducted in English, which allows international students to pursue the program without needing to first learn Korean. Doctoral candidates typically pass qualifying examinations before moving into sustained laboratory research, often using techniques spanning molecular biology, imaging, and increasingly computational analysis, depending on their specific research focus. As biological research becomes more data-intensive and interdisciplinary, graduates trained in this program are positioned for careers that combine traditional laboratory skills with emerging quantitative and computational approaches to studying living systems.