1. Subjects and test time for Qualifying Exam:

• (1) One of the subjects “Qualitative Research Methods” and “Quantitative Methods and Analysis,” and the subject “Business Research Analysis and Applications.”
• (2) The qualifying exam are held in winter and summer breaks every year.
• (3) The program office will announce the time and place of the qualifying exam on the 14th week of each semester. Students must submit an application for the qualifying exam to the program office before the application deadline.
• (4) The subject(s) in the qualifying exam must be the courses that students have already taken or are currently taking.

2. The qualifying exam is conducted in written form. Passing the qualifying exam requires a score of 70 in each chosen subject.

3. Students who do not pass the qualifying exam within four years (excluding the suspension period) will be dropped out from NCKU.

4. Students who pass the qualifying exam and complete graduation credits are considered as doctoral candidates.

1.Graduate students must publish individual cases or papers in academic journals domestically or internationally. The total research output must accumulate to 10 points in order to apply for the doctoral qualifying examination. The rules for counting points in the five categories of academic journals are as follows:
1.College of Management A+ and A Journals, Harvard Business Review, MIT Sloan Management Review, and California Management Review: 16 points per article.

2.SCI- and SSCI-ranked journal papers or Harvard, IVEY cases: 8 points per article.

3.Harvard Business Publishing Partner Collections, TSSCI journal papers, Harvard Business Review Traditional Chinese Edition main cases: 6 points per article.

4.Peer-reviewed journal papers, Harvard Business Review Traditional Chinse Edition brief cases, or case studies published by other entities: 3 points per article.

5.International academic conference papers (limited to full-text papers included in the Scopus database): 2 points per article.

Students’ earned points from an article mentioned above are the points divided by the number of the authors in the article, excluding the full-time faculty members in College of Management.

The maximum earned points from articles in Categories (4) and (5) s are 7

A single case published in multiple journals will only be counted once.

2. Regulations for articles and co-authorship:

• (1) The articles that can be counted as academic points must be those that are submitted and published after the students have entered the DBA program, and are co-authored with their doctoral advisors. At least one article is relevant to their doctoral dissertation.
• (2) The corresponding author of an article in (1) should be the student or his/her doctoral advisor(s). If the student is not the corresponding author, he/she must be the first author in the author list excluding the full-time faculty members in College of Management.
• (3) The doctoral advisors or full-time faculty members in College of Management aforementioned can be students’ former doctoral advisors who already retired or resigned.

Before taking the doctoral qualifying examination, students must pass one of the following English proficiency tests:
1.TOEFL iBT score of 72 or higher

2.TOEFL ITP score of 543 or higher

3.TOEIC score of 750 or higher

4.GEPT Intermediate-high level: Preliminary exam

5.IELTS score of 5.5 or higher

The English proficiency test results must be obtained within two years prior to admission.
The standard for the English proficiency test does not apply to applicants who receive a bachelor's degree or a graduate degree in English-speaking countries.

For students who are admitted but have not yet met the required English proficiency standard, they may enroll in and pass the “Online English for Research” course offered by the university's Foreign Language Center within two years of admission. Successful completion of this course with a passing score will be considered as meeting the English proficiency requirement. Related courses, fees, and regulations will be subject to the announcements made by the Foreign Language Center.

1. The doctoral dissertation proposal should be held at least one semester before the doctoral degree examination. It should be approved by the doctoral advisor(s) and announced two weeks prior to its occurrence.

2. According to the NCKU regulations for doctoral degrees, students who fail to pass the doctoral dissertation proposal within six years will be dropped out from NCKU.

The doctoral degree examination shall be held in accordance with the detailed rules for the graduate degree examination and for the doctoral degree examination at NCKU.

1. Students are required to pass the qualifying exam, the standard for English proficiency test, and the doctoral dissertation proposal before applying for the doctoral degree examination. The application form for the doctoral degree examination should be approved by students’ doctoral advisors. If students fail to complete the required courses in the semester when the doctoral degree examination is held, this examination will be withdrawn.

2. Students should apply for the doctoral degree examination one month prior to its occurrence, complete the application form on the NCKU online application system for the doctoral degree examination, and submit the following documents:

• (1) Application form for the doctoral degree examination
• (2) A list of committee members
• (3) hardcopy of the doctoral dissertation
• (4) hardcopy of each published article (an acceptance letter is needed if the article has not been published)
• (5) hardcopy of the JCR impact factor inquiry report
• (6) Explanation of the relevance between the doctoral dissertation and the published article(s)
• (7) Doctoral dissertation comparison report signed by students’ doctoral advisors

3. Students’ qualification for the doctoral degree examination is reviewed by the academic committee at College of Management.

4. The doctoral examination committee shall consist of 5 to 9 members, including one-third or more of non-NCKU faculty members, appointed from those specializing in the disciplines related to the Ph.D. candidate’s dissertation, which shall be approved by the President. The dissertation advisor shall not act as the convener of the committee. The qualifications of committee members are as follows:

• 1.Those employed formerly or currently as full or associate professor;

• 2.Those who are employed as an academician, or who are employed formerly or currently as a research fellow or associate research fellow at Academia Sinica;

• 3.Those who hold a Ph.D. degree with significant contributions in the academic field;

• 4.Those who specialize in an uncommon or exceptional field with significant academic or professional contributions.

• The qualification criteria for member appointments in the preceding subparagraphs 3 to 4 shall be established by the academic program.