STUDENT AFFAIRS

PhD Requirements

Ph.D. Degree Courses/Credits Requirements

The Period of Study of IPCS doctoral students is 2 to 7 years. For the “Direct Pursuit of Doctoral Degree” (DP) students who transferred into IPCS Doctoral Degree without the completion of their master’s degrees, the period of study is in accordance with this article.
Principle of finding advisors:

Doctoral students may select their thesis advisor from among the faculty members of the program based on their research interests and direction. If they choose an/a affiliated/ affiliated-adjunct/ project faculty member as their thesis advisor, they must co-supervise with a tenure or joint faculty member, who will also serve as the student's mentor. Formal approval shall be granted by the program director upon official approval.
If a doctoral student wishes to select a faculty member who is not a member of the program committee or program faculty as their thesis advisor, they must submit a separate application and obtain approval from the program director.
After confirming the thesis advisor, students must submit a "Thesis Advisor Consent Form" with the advisor's signature before the end of the first semester of their first year of study. Failure to submit will result in the program director and the program curriculum committee assigning an advisor after consultation.

Ph.D. students should complete 30 credits of coursework
1. The required courses are “Climate Change: Issues and Solutions”, “Workshop on Climate Change and Human Settlements”, and Seminars (I)-(VI).
2. With the assistance of their advisors, students are expected to design appropriate doctoral level independent researches, and instructed by faculty members other than their advisors.
3. Important Reminder: students who enrolled in and from 2018 Fall semester should take 6hrs Academic Ethics Course in the first academic year. (link)
IPCS doctoral students need to make oral reports of research or study plan in seminars every academic year. The reports will be evaluated by all faculty members and to provide students with written comments as reference of improvement. Under extraordinary circumstances (e.g., combining seminar with dissertation oral defense or preliminary defense), students may file applications to the IPCS academic committee for exemption, and the report will be exempted upon approval. IPCS doctoral students may only be exempted from their reports once during the entire period of study.
Students should only register in the course “Dissertation (Ph.D.)” (12 credits) on the semester of taking Doctoral Degree Examination. For more information regarding dissertation composition, please visit: NTU Academic Writing Education Center
Doctoral advisor (documents)
(1) Graduate students may choose the thesis advisor from among members of the program committee (referred to as program members) and program teachers according to their research interests and research directions. The thesis advisor is also the advisor of the graduate student. After both parties agree, it will be formally approved by the director of the program.
(2) If the graduate students of this program want to choose other teachers who are not the members of the IPCS and the program teacher as the main professor of the thesis, they must apply separately, asking a teacher of IPCS to co-instruct and go through the program approved after the IPCS director agrees.
(3) After confirming the instructor, the student needs to submit the "Instructing Professor Consent" signed by the teacher before the end of the last semester. If it is not submitted, your advisor will be appointed after discussion with the IPCS committee.

Doctoral Degree Examination

The Doctoral Degree Examination is divided into the following four parts:
1. Annual Assessment
2. Qualification Examination
3. Preliminary (Proposal) Defense
4. Dissertation Oral Defense
Annual Assessment and Qualification Examination:
1. A Doctoral Supervisory Committee (DSC) needs to be assembled before the beginning of the 2nd semester of doctoral students’ admission, which is responsible for the students’ course registration advisory, annual assessment and qualification examination.
2. The DSC is consisted of 5 teaching staff convened by the advisor, 3 of which need to be IPCS faculty members (including the advisor), and at least 1 of the faculty members has to be an interdisciplinary faculty. A list of committee members has to be approved by the IPCS academic committee before taking effect.
3. Content of the annual assessment includes:
  1. Seminar report.
  2. Progress on research and study.
    The assessment should be completed 1 month before the end of the Final Exam Week in the second semester of every academic year.
4. The result of the annual assessment is either “Pass” or “Fail”. Students who have not participate in the annual assessments are considered fail in that particular academic year. A student who has received 2 fails during the period of study will be expelled from NTU.
5. The DSC should advise on the assessed students’ research and study plans.
6. IPCS doctoral students need to pass the qualification examination within 3 academic years after admission. The examination questions are composed by the DSC, and it is the DSC’s duty to decides whether the students pass or fail the qualification examination.
  1. Oral or Written exam:
    The DSC composes the examination questions, and the DSC has to decide whether the students pass or fail the qualification examination.
  2. Compose a review article:
    The article should provide a comprehensive review of studies relevant to the intended topic of thesis research and assessment of gaps in current understanding. The article should be evaluated by at least three readers from the DSC. The DSC can also invite readers from outside. The DSC will decide whether the students pass or fail the qualification examination base on the comments from the readers.
  3. Publish an international journal article, book or book chapters (see XIV) as a first or second author.
7. Under extraordinary circumstances, and upon approval by the IPCS academic committee, may the student take Seminar (V) before qualification examination, only if a proposal is finished and approved by the student’s thesis advisor.
8. Followed by the completion of required courses except for Seminar(V) and (VI) (including the credits students expect to receive by the end of the same semester), IPCS doctoral students need to provide the following certificates and meet the minimum graduation standards, before applying for the qualification examination:
  1. TOEFL ITP 543
  2. TOEFL iBT 72
  3. TOEIC 785
  4. IELTS 5.5 (overall score)
  5. FLPT 195
  6. FCE 160
9. The qualification examination is held once per semester. The application documents that students need to submit to the IPCS Office before the designated deadline are as follows:
  1. The application form of “Doctoral Student Qualification Examination”
  2. Full transcript
10. Upon approval by the IPCS curriculum committee may the annual assessment and the qualification examination be deferred for 1 year at most.
11. The qualification examinations may be combined with the students’ annual assessments.
12. The result of the qualification examination is either “Pass” or “Fail”. Students who failed their first attempt may retake their second qualification examinations 6 months later. Students who fail twice during the period of study will be expelled from NTU
13. Under extraordinary circumstances (e.g., pregnancy, illness or injury) may the student file qualification examination deferral application, once advisor’s consent is acquired.
14. During the period of study, IPCS doctoral students may apply for qualification examination exemption by publishing an international journals article, book, or book chapters that are related to their doctoral dissertation titles, in which the students are either the first or second authors. The students are considered passing the qualification examination once the DSC approved the exemptions. Research content of this publication must be made after attending the PhD program. After the approval of qualification examination exemption, the same publications may no longer be listed as the academic papers required for graduation.
Dissertation Oral Defense
1. Once the students have passed the qualification examination and the annual assessments, they need to acquire acceptance of publication as the first author in one of the following forms before applying for the Dessertation Oral Defense:
  1. An article in an SCI or SSCI journal as the first author
  2. An article in an A&HCI journal
  3. A book or book chapter, which is acknowledged by the DSC and the IPCS academic committee
2. Students are recommended to submit the first draft of their dissertations to the Oral Defense Committee for inspection 2 weeks prior to the Doctoral Degree Oral Defense.
3. The Oral Defense Committee should comprise the following members: 3 non-NTU members and 4 NTU members (including IPCS faculty and faculty on IPCS curriculum committee). The list of oral defense committee members is proposed by the advisor before holding the examination. The list should be approved by IPCS program director before taking effect.
Students transferred into the IPCS Doctoral Degree without the completion of their master’s degrees, should complete at least 3 semesters of study before applying for the doctoral degree examination.
Please refer to the NTU academic codes for any subject matter not being mentioned here.

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