1. All first-year PhD students are recommended to find his/her thesis advisor(s) in June upon the Department registration in order to begin all procedures, including course schedule arrangement, qualifying exam, paper publication, in September after the University registration. Any student unable to find a thesis advisor during the first semester will have the Department Chair as the temporary advisor. However, all students are required to find their thesis advisor by the second semester after their registration.

2. All students’ course schedule will be approved by their thesis advisor(s) according to the rules below:
  a. Required Credits:
    (a) The minimum number of credits is 36. However, the advisor may ask students to take more credits than minimum requirement.
    (b) A total of 12 courses, including 10 major courses and 2 methodology courses* taught by at least four different teachers, must be completed within the first two years after registration.
      * The selected major and methodology courses have to be approved by the thesis advisor.
    (c) A 0-credit seminar in every semester is mandatory for all PhD students.

*Students who enter after 2022 academic year has to take general education courses of academic ethics (a minimum of six hours), and present the certificate upon applying for graduation. Moreover, they also need to take Writing in Chinese and English (a minimum of one hour), and communication skills (a minimum of one hour), the above two will be included in the method courses provided by the department of BA. 
  b. Course Opening:
    (a) All thesis advisors may open courses individually or co-instruct the course with other instructor(s). The course’s prerequisite (including any grade from past course(s)) can be set by the instructor. If no prerequisite is set, the course is open for all Ph. D. students.
    (b) All instructors will be encouraged to separate master-level courses with doctoral-level courses.
  c. Course Schedule Planning:
    (a) All new PhD students must submit the signed application form for course schedule within the first week of the semester.
    (b) All students registered prior to September 2007 must submit the signed application form for course schedule within the first week of every semester if the major courses are not completed.
    (c) The course list will be arranged by the Course Planning Committee at the beginning of the previous semester.
    (d) All students must enroll themselves in the courses according to the application form for course schedule. The students shall inform the advisor and obtain his/her permission if there is any change in the actual course schedule.

3. Applicable students: The rules and regulations apply to all students. However, the students registered prior to 2015 (inclusive) shall follow previous rules on credit number requirement set at that time. (This includes the required fundamental courses.)

4. Division: The entrance examinations will be conducted in divisions (organization and strategy, marketing, finance, innovation and technology, and international business). As a result, students will be divided into groups, while the faculty members will not be separated in divisions. However, it is possible that faculty members may be assisting certain administration matters according to their special field of study.

5. Qualifying Examination:
  a. Every student must pass two qualifying examinations within four years after entering the PhD program in order to qualify for theses proposal.
  b. The qualifying examination may be completed with either a written exam or a conference paper, depending on the thesis advisor’s recommendation. The conference paper will be evaluated by the Doctoral Committee during the thesis proposal interview. If the student wishes to take the written exam as the qualifying examination, he/she has to pass the exam and obtain the permission from all four members who devise the exam. Any student who wishes to change advisor(s) after his/her conference paper is accepted as the qualifying exam will have to get approved by his/her new advisor(s).

6. Department Administration Management: The Doctoral Committee will be responsible for the following administration affairs:
  a. Rules and Regulation regarding Thesis Advisors:
A thesis advisor has to be an assistant professor, associate professor, or professor in the Department. The number of thesis advisor may be more than one. However, the advisor(s) will be advising on all examinations and evaluations, including thesis proposal interview, thesis publication, and thesis interview.
  b. Students registered prior to September 2007 need to submit the signed application for course plan before the deadline. Any student who does not meet the deadline or does not follow the submitted course plan will receive a warning. A second warning may result in dismissal from the University.
  c. Thesis Proposal Interview Qualifying:
Students need to provide: (a)Course Schedule Permission from Advisor according to the rules and deadline (b)Confirmation from advisor on the completion of qualifying examination (c)If there are more than one student listed on the published conference paper, the unit will be divided by the number of students on the paper. The students will then have to complete additional conference papers to complete a full unit. For instance, a student published a conference paper with one other student. The unit will be divided by two and counted as half unit. The student will then have to complete another half unit to fulfill the qualifying examination. (d)Application form for proposal (e)A transcript for PhD program (g)Applicable for anyone who has changed advisor: documents (a) and (b) signed by the current advisor and approved by the new advisor. The student may be asked to do any modification according to the request of the new advisor.
  d. Thesis Interview Required Criteria:
Students need to provide the following documents: (a)an accepted or already published paper in a journal that is accepted by the Department (please see (e) for the eligibility of an accepted journal) (b)Application forms downloaded from the online system and from the Dept. website (c)Interviewers list (d)Doc. of proposal(e)Turnitin reports.
  e. Accepted Journal Definition:
    (a)Students who apply for graduation within 3 years must publish a paper that is ranked top 10 in the specialized area of study. (b)one paper in SSCI or any journal with equivalent level, or two papers in SCI/TSSCI or any journal with equivalent level (c)the author(s) on the paper will only include the name of the student and his/her advisor (d)The organization listed on the paper must include the Department only. (e)If there is more than one student listed on the published journal paper, the unit will be divided by the number of students on the paper. The students will then have to complete additional journal paper(s) to complete a full unit. For instance, a student published a journal paper with two other students. The unit will be divided by three and counted as one-third unit. The student will then have to complete another two-third unit to fulfill the requirement. (f)Papers that are accepted but not yet published have to follow all the rules from (a) to (e). The published copy will have to be submitted to the Department after its publication. (g)The diploma will be withdrawn if any of the regulation has been violated.

For students who enter after 2021 academic year, the definitions are as follows:

(a)Students who apply for graduation within 3 years must publish a paper that is ranked top 10 in the specialized area of study. (b)one paper in SSCI/SCI or two papers in TSSCI/SCOPUS/EconLit (c)the author(s) on the paper will only include the name of the student and his/her advisor. If needed, and approved by the PhD Committee, one outstanding scholar from outside NCKU is allowed; however, the student or his/her advisor has to be the first author. (d)The organization listed on the paper must include the Department. The Department’s name has to place prior to the student’s other organization. (e)If there is more than one student listed on the published journal paper, the unit will be divided by the number of students on the paper. The students will then have to complete additional journal paper(s) to complete a full unit. For instance, a student published a journal paper with two other students. The unit will be divided by three and counted as one-third unit. The student will then have to complete another two-third unit to fulfill the requirement. If there is authors from other department in NCKU or from other university as stated in (c), the counted method treated the same as students. (f)Papers that are accepted but not yet published have to follow all the rules from (a) to (e). The published copy will have to be submitted to the Department after its publication. (g)The diploma will be withdrawn if any of the regulation has been violated.

  f. Interview Dates for Thesis Proposal/Thesis.
   The final defense should be conducted after at least three months of proposal.
  g. Dismissal.
    Any PhD students violates any of the following rules may be dismissed, and his/her advisor may cease advising immediately.
    (a) The student is unable to fulfill the requirements from the advisor on (i)course completion (ii)qualifying examination (iii)thesis proposal (iv)final thesis.
    (b) The student has violated any of the following misbehaviors:
      - cheating on course exams or the written qualifying examination
      - any dishonesty in presenting the academic work , such as the act of plagiarism on conference papers or journal papers, not presenting the conference papers himself/herself, forge or falsify any information.
      - any other behaviors against the standard of conduct in academic matters expected of members of the Department
  h. Change of thesis advisors – A request for a change of thesis advisor must meet the following criteria:
    (a) The change must be approved by both the current thesis advisor and the new thesis advisor. However, in case of a change of thesis advisor being initiated by the thesis advisor leaving the university or other factors not within reasonable control, the change needs not be approved by the thesis advisor who is leaving or has left the university. In addition, PhD students, with the exception of those expected to graduate in the semester after their thesis advisors’ departures, must apply for a change of thesis advisor immediately.
    (b) All documents (including timetable, qualifying examinations, etc.) signed by the current thesis advisor with approval must be re-signed and re-approved by the new thesis advisor. Any course that does not meet the new thesis advisor’s approval must be retaken either in whole or in examination only.

7. English Proficiency Verification Prior to Graduation (English Exit Exam):
  1) Students must pass one of the English proficiency tests listed below:
    *TOEFL iBT – 72 or above
    *IELTS 5.5 or above
    *TOEIC – 785 or above
  2) The English test that has been taken within the 5 years before enrollment may be accepted.

* These regulations were translated from the original Chinese. In the event of any discrepancies between the two versions, the Chinese shall always take precedence.