National Chung Cheng University Chemical Engineering Department
Ph.D Degree Study Rules and Regulations
 

1. Admission Requirement
   1. Full-time postgraduate students: Have obtained local or overseas Master Degree accredited by the Ministry of Education, ROC, and have been accepted for admission through Ph.D Student Admissions.
   2. Part-time postgraduate students: Are eligible for full-time postgraduate students, and meet the stipulated criteria for part-time postgraduate students.
   3. Direct admission from CCU CHE Master Degree Program should adhere to the following eligibility:

1. Studied as CCU CHE Master Degree students, and had completed 18 credit hours in first academic year.
2. Ranking during the first academic year should be within 50 percentile among other year one Master Degree students, or have shown potential for research and recommended by the advisor.
3. Fulfill the above 2 criteria, applicants’ eligibility should pass evaluation by the evaluation committee.

2. Study period: At least two years
3. Study courses and credit hours
   1. Adhere to regulations stipulated by Academic Affairs Office.
   2. Ph.D students(including full-time and part-time) should complete 18 credit hours of graduate school courses approved by their respective advisors and the department head(Not including Graduate Seminars and Ph.D Thesis).
   3. Master Degree students pursuing Ph.D Degree directly should at least complete 36 credit hours of graduate school courses approved by their respective advisors and the department head(Including credit hours accumulated during Master Degree study, but not including Graduate Seminars, Master Thesis and Ph.D Thesis)
      1. Applicant must undertake and pass the Ph.D Thesis course every semester. If he/she has been a student in CCU CHE for more than 3 years, then such applicant must have undertaken and passed 6 semesters of Ph.D Thesis.
      2. During this study period, applicant must undertake and pass Graduate Seminar every semester. If he/she has been a student in CCU CHE for more than 4 years, then such applicant must have undertaken and passed 8 semesters of Graduate Thesis.
      3. Ph.D students undertaking electives from other departments must seek approval from their respective advisors, the electives should be related to the topic of their Ph.D thesis. The maximum credit hours allowed for electives: Direct admission – 6 credit hours; Admission through examination – 9 credit hours.
   4. According to the Directives for National Chung Cheng University Academic Integrity Education, Master Degree student admitted from ROC Year 106(Inc.) onwards must complete the course Academic and Research Integrity Education within the first semester of admission. Upon showing proof of aforementioned course completion will the students be able to apply for examinations to complete their master degree courses. Students without the proof are prohibited from taking such examinations.

4. Eligibility Examination
   1. Ph.D students must pass the Eligibility Examination to become an eligible candidate
   2. Examination: Held once every year, not limited to the amount of examinations taken(until passing one), no limit designated for passing students each examination
   3. Only Year 2 Master Degree students are allowed to take the examination, they should seek approval from the department head beforehand. Examination subject result is valid for 3 years, to facilitate future application as a proof of competency.
   4. Eligibility Examination Subjects:

1. Group A Subjects(Suitable for students who have done chemical engineering undergraduate and postgraduate studies)
   1. Unit Operations and Transport Phenomena
   2. Chemical Engineering Thermodynamics and Reaction Engineering

(These subjects are implemented in the test from ROC Year 93 onwards)
 

2. Group B Subjects(Suitable for students who have not done chemical engineering undergraduate study, can choose one Group B subject to replace Group A subject)
   1. Advanced Organic Chemistry
   2. Advanced Material Science
   3. Advanced Biochemistry

Subject replacement regulation:

1. Examination must be done simultaneously with subject undertaking
2. Examination: Held once every year, not limited to the amount of examinations taken(until passing one), subjects and criteria for passing do not change, but no limit designated for passing rate.
3. Study: Suitable for students who have taken the eligibility test and have failed. Results are taken from the 3 compulsory courses undertaken during Ph.D study, including Thermodynamics, Dynamics (Both courses can exempt the students from the subject Chemical Engineering Thermodynamics in Eligibility Examinations) and Transport Phenomena. If each course’s result is within 66 percentile among other students, then the student is considered to have passed the Eligibility Examinations, but the credit hours will not be counted towards the credit hours required for graduation (ie. not included in 18 credit hours needed for graduation). If the student is admitted through Direct Admission, the credit hours are counted instead.

 
Refer to the above regulations for subjects tested. Choose 1 subject under Group B to be tested, all Group A subjects will be tested.
 

5. Examination date: Eligibility Examination is held on the second week of December every year. Registration opens one month prior to the examination.
6. Questions and Scoring: Each subject’s examination questions are set and scored by three teachers. Each examination lasts for one hour only, and examination papers are marked anonymously. Subject passing requirement is as follows: Each subject has 3 questions, correctly answering 2 questions is required to pass. Examinations results and passing rate are reported during the department meeting. The department head is responsible for appointing teacher who set the questions. If necessary, he/she can appoint external professors specializing in the related field to set and score the papers. Besides, the names of these professors are not disclosed to the public.

5. Thesis and Oral Examination
   1. Ph.D students’ advisors must be a full-time teacher working in CCU CHE.
   2. Ph.D students who have completed their Ph.D thesis can apply for thesis evaluation and oral exam after obtaining approval from their respective advisors.
   3. Ph.D thesis must be an original work of the Ph.D candidate done within the study period. Before applying for thesis evaluation, he/she must publish the research work on an open academic journal(including thesis accepted for publish on academic journal, and have supporting documents for proof) and comply with the following regulations:
      1. Ph.D students submitting eligibility evaluation should designate at least one thesis as a representative work for publishing Ph.D thesis.
      2. Representative work on related fields must include the student as the primary author(not including the advisor) when published on well-known local and oversea academic journals. The work must be published under the name of National Chung Cheng University Department of Chemical Engineering, and should specify the advisor under the contact author section.
      3. Student should seek approval from advisor before publishing, the scoring given to the published work is as follows:
         1. Academic Journal with SCI Impact Factor of 0.4 and above – 2 marks/paper
         2. Known Journal from Europe, United States or Japan – 2 marks/paper
         3. Journal based in ROC – 1 mark/paper
         4. Non-full paper – Deduction of half the total marks awarded
         5. Thesis scores should reach 4 at least before making  application for thesis evaluation and oral examination, and can only be scored while published work including applicant’s advisor. Thesis scoring method: Thesis with the student as sole author(except advisor and common research head) – multiply score by 1; Thesis with more than one author(except advisor and common research head) – multiply score by 2/3 if ranked first, otherwise multiply score by 1/3)
         6. Any work with the advisor resulting in patent awarded by oversea governing body is awarded 2 marks during study period. Note that the above patients can only be counted once, and must not repeat any work from academic journals or other countries’ patents.
      4. Ph.D thesis format and oral examination evaluation refer to Academic Affairs’ regulations for detailed.
6. These rules and regulations are valid with immediate effects upon approval by the Department Affairs General Meeting, any changes shall be treated the same.