Rules & Regulations
Institute of International Business
Rules & Regulations for PhD
From May 22th, 2024
1. To clarify and standardize the regulations and requirements for Ph.D. students of the Institute of International Business, based on National Cheng Kung University’s postgraduate regulation and doctoral candidate qualification examinations, we hereby announce the “Institute of International Business Rules and Regulations for Ph.D. students“.
2. These regulations are applied to all doctoral students who have enrolled in the 2023 academic year or after.
3. Regulations for Courses
1) The doctoral students are required to complete a minimum of 27 credits for graduation including
A. 27 credits for course works, including 3 credits for required core courses “International Business Theories”.
B. 12 credits for the dissertation.
2) Ph.D. students who haven’t taken “Economics”, “Accounting”, “Statistics” and “International Business Management” courses in their graduate or undergraduate must take these as Prerequisite Courses.
3) The Prerequisite Courses are not counted as part of the required 27 credits necessary to graduate.
4) The Ph.D. students are required to take at least 12 credits in the Institute of International Business in total. A maximum of 15 credits can be taken in each semester. The application for taking courses in other institutes must be submitted to the office in the second stage of the course selection to be accredited as credits for graduation.
4. Regulations for choosing Advisor
1) The doctoral students are required to choose the advisor who is a full-time faculty in the Institute of International Business.
2) We encourage students to confirm the advisor after enrolling. The director of International Business will be the temporary advisor if the PhD students haven’t decided the advisor.
3) The changing of the advisor shall be subject to the following provisions:
A. The changing of the advisor must be accepted by both current and new professors. If the advisor cannot continue to guide, the student needs to submit the “Advisor Changing Application Form” and “Affidavit of advisor changing”
B. All documents (including courses and qualifications) signed by the previous advisor must be signed and approved again by the new advisor.
5. The Qualification Examination
1) The doctoral students are required to pass the qualification examination before attending the thesis proposal.
2) Qualifications for taking the thesis proposal (At least one of the following requirements must be met):
A. The Doctoral committee will organize 2-4 teachers to prepare questions for the written test. The doctoral student will get the approval of qualification after passing the written test. The Qualification Examination will be held at the end of the first semester each year. Exam time is from 9 AM to 6 PM.
B. The doctoral student has one paper published in SSCI journals or 2 papers in SCI journals. The student’s IB advisor must be in the author list.
C. The doctoral student has papers published in 2 different conferences and the advisor must be in the author list. The conference needs to be enlisted in IB regulation of coverage of conferences. The two qualification tests cannot all be the annual meetings or seminars that are held in Taiwan.
D. For conferences that are not enlisted in the Institute of International Business' regulations of coverage of conferences, they need to get approval from the advisor and apply for enlisting in the Institute of International Business' regulations of coverage of conferences before attending the conferences.
3) If there is only one student in the authors' list, he or she will receive one point per paper. If there are two students on the authors’ list, each will receive half (1/2) points. Likewise, a count of 1/3 point is given for three students in the authors’ list, etc. The identification of the authors depends on the time of participating in the research period.
4) If the conference paper or journal paper applied for the qualification test is rewritten from the student’s master thesis, then the student can only get half of the points mentioned above.
5) The qualification test will be subject to the examination and approval of the Doctoral Committee. The doctoral student is required to submit a qualification test application according to the stipulated time. For the conference paper, the student is required to sign the Paper Qualification Test justified Declaration. The student needs to attend and present the paper at the conference by himself/herself, otherwise, the conference paper will not be counted.
6) The papers applied for the qualification examination cannot be used as the dissertation or graduation required papers.
7) The doctoral student should take the Qualification Examination before the 5th year of the PhD degree. For who do not finish the Qualification Examination will be dismissed.
6. Paper Publication
1) Requirements for Graduation Dissertation
A. One paper published in SSCI Journal or 2 papers in SCI Journal, the advisor from the International Business Institute must be in the author list. If the journal charges the publication fee, the students need to get approval from the Doctoral Committee before submitting the paper to the journal.
B. The student or the instructor of the institute shall be listed as the first author.
C. The student’s service institutes can be listed in the authors’ service institutes section, but the name of the school needs to be listed ahead of the service institutes.
D. If there is only one student in the authors list, he or she will receive one point per paper. If there are two students in the authors’ list, then each will only receive 1/2 point. Likewise, a count of 1/3 point is given for three students in the authors’ list, etc.
E. An acceptance letter should be required due to the accepted but unpublished paper, and sign the affidavit letter with certainly listing the author’s raking and service organization according to the regulation in the Institute.
2) If there is any suspicion of the thesis publication, the issue will be reviewed and approved by the PhD Committee. After the student’s paper is accepted and passed the qualification examination, the student can apply for the PhD graduation requirement check.
7. Thesis Proposal
The thesis proposal application can be submitted after the completion of all the courses and after passing the qualification test. Moreover, the student needs to submit the “Thesis Proposal Application Form” to the IB office one week before the thesis proposal.
8. Thesis Oral Defense
The thesis oral defense application can be submitted after the completion of journal publication and the English proficiency requirement. The Thesis Oral Defense application should be submitted 3 months after the Proposal.
9. Study Termination
According to “The Regulation of Graduate Students of Cheng Kung University” Chapter V Article 13 for processing.
10. English Proficiency requirement for Graduation
1) The English test that has been taken within 5 years before enrollment may be accepted.
2) The student should achieve the English Proficiency requirement before the date of the thesis oral defense.
3) Students need to achieve at least 1 of the following:
A. TOEIC 785 or above
B. Pass the high-intermediate level second-round test of GEPT
C. IELTS English Language Testing 5.5 or above
D. TOEFL online version (iBT - Internet-based Test) 72 and above.
E. Select the course “Online English for Graduate Students” in the course enrollment system, and reach 70 in the final grade.
4) Students who come from English-speaking countries don’t need to provide a language proficiency certificate.
11. The Institute will establish a Doctoral Class Committee for handling PhD students’ related affairs. The director will serve as the convener of the Committee, and all the full-time teachers will be the members.
12. Matters that are not regulated in these Regulations shall be administered in accordance with NCKU Graduate Program Regulations and NCKU Academic Regulations. These Regulations shall be approved by Institute Affair Council before taking effect. Amendments shall be processed accordingly.
