With the generous support of the Korea Foundation, the European Program for the Exchange of Lecturers (EPEL) will continue in 2026 under the following conditions:
- Colleagues are invited to apply for the EPEL programme with a total budget of up to €2,500 per institution. Applications should be prepared by the host institution.
- For speakers based in Europe, only in person lectures are supported. EPEL does not provide an honorarium for the speaker, but travel, accommodation, and other expenses will be reimbursed according to the budget agreed by the host and the speaker.
- Applications may include one online lecture by a scholar based outside of Europe. In this case, the lecturer can claim an honorarium of € 300, but only after a video of the lecture has been made available online and the link is published on the AKSE website. The lecture also must be live-streamed and announced to all AKSE members on the AKSE homepage two weeks before the lecture takes place. The hosting institution can also claim up to € 150 for preparing a publishable version of the video, on the basis of administrative support calculated at € 25 per hour.
The deadline for applications is 24 October 2025. Results will be announced in November 2025.
Please apply for EPEL lectures by sending a word file of the EPEL 2026 APPLICATION FORM to the AKSE vice president holly.stephens@ed.ac.uk AND to epel@koreanstudies.eu.
In preparing your application, please be aware of the following conditions.
If existing funds do not suffice to honour all applications of good quality, priority will be given to applications from universities where there are few teaching staff in Korean Studies.
EPEL Guest Lecturers can assist teaching staff in replacing a limited number of teaching hours. EPEL lectures have to be a part of courses taught and not form a special seminar. The lectures have to offer academic credits or units and form a part of examinations. All applications must explain how these conditions are met.
A list of speakers who have expressed interest in participating in EPEL will be made available in early October. It remains possible to invite researchers who are not on the list.
Specific Guidelines:
- All applications are judged on their quality.
- All proposals should offer an overview of the teaching program and specify how many staff teach primarily for Korean Studies.
- In case of cancellation of an EPEL lecture, the host must immediately contact the AKSE vice president and propose a replacement so that the new proposal can be evaluated. Notification should be made within one week of cancellation. If the applicant university does not follow these procedures regarding cancellations, then the university cannot apply for EPEL funding in the following year.
- Each university can apply for a maximum of €2,500 and is responsible for allocating the budget. The AKSE Council will not supply any additional funding beyond the original application amount. Any additional costs, even unforeseen, must be borne by the applicant university or the Guest Lecturer.
- AKSE is unable to reimburse speakers for lectures that were not completed. For this reason, we encourage all speakers to purchase travel insurance to protect against cancellation/rescheduling due to illness or other unforeseen disruption.
- The host is responsible for agreeing and communicating a budget with each lecturer, to cover transportation, hotel, and meals. The Guest Lecturer is free to spend their allotment in the best way they see fit in any mixture. For example, if transportation costs are much lower than originally anticipated, then the Guest Lecturer is free to upgrade their hotel or to spend more on meals. The AKSE Council encourages the expenditure of the full budget amount, but any expenditure in excess of the total amount allotted by the original budget will be the responsibility of the Guest Lecturer or the host university.
- All Guest Lecturers are responsible for keeping track of their expenditures, collecting their own receipts, and then submitting the EPEL REIMBURSEMENT FORM to the AKSE Treasurer. A reimbursement form is available on the AKSE website.
- Host universities are required to submit a report on EPEL lectures, by 31 January 2027.