Ph.D

Year

First Year	Second Year	Third Year	Fourth Year	Fifth-Sixth Year	Seventh Year
Take Public Issues and Quantitative Methods in the first semester; take Qualitative Methods in the second semester	Choose your thesis advisor	Finish all 30 credits before the end of the third year	Finish the Doctoral Qualification Examination before the end of the first semester this year	Apply for the Thesis Outline Examination	Submit a journal paper or a book chapter. Finish the Doctoral Thesis Oral Examination before the end of this year

Course Arrangement

Students of the Doctoral degree should take at least 30 credits in the first three years, including 9 credits of Required Courses and 21 credits of Elective Courses. The Doctoral Qualification Examination should be done in 3.5 years. Students must also submit a journal paper (as the first author) or a book chapter before the Doctoral Thesis Oral Examination.

Doctoral students should take the Master courses Classical Sociology Theories and Contemporary Sociology Theories before graduation (credits included in the Doctoral credits). Students who have not taken these two courses before enrolling the Doctoral degree can have a spare year before the Doctoral Qualification Examination. Students who have taken similar courses in other educational institutes can apply for credit exemption with the permission of the course committee.

Course		Credits	Year	Notes
Public Issues and Sociology Topics	Required	3	First semester of first year
Advanced Quantitative Methods	Required	3	First semester of first year
Advanced Qualitative Methods	Required	3	Second semester of first year	NTU, NCCU, NTHU and Institute of Sociology, Academia Sinica will take turns teaching this course
Student-Professor Discussion (A)*	Required	1	First semester of first year	not included in the graduation credits
Student-Professor Discussion (B)*	Required	1	Second semester of first year	not included in the graduation credits
Academic Ethics Course	Required	6 (hours)	Finished before the degree exam

Elective Courses

1. To be qualified for applying for the degree exam, students must take at least 9 credits from the Department of Sociology (Master or Doctoral degree), not including any Research Topic Courses.
2. At least two out of five fields should be chosen (one course from each field):
   • Social Network and Big Data Analysis
   • Political Sociology
   • Population, Family and Social Stratification
   • Science, Technology and Society
   • Globalization and Asia Comparison Study

Thesis Advisor

Students should consult their thesis advisors before registering for the third semester, and register with the advisors’ approvals. The thesis advisor is generally required to be a professor, associate professor, or assistant professor from the department. If necessary, a teacher from outside the department may be invited to advise, but a teacher from the department must also be co-advisor.

Students must meet one of the following conditions to ask a professor to be their thesis advisors:

（1）Students have taken the professor’s course.
（2）The subject of the thesis is highly related to the professor’s research interests.
（3）Before agreeing to be the thesis advisors, professors should ask students to propose a research project.

The aforementioned research project should include research motivation, research goals, literature review, methodology, research outline and references.

（4）Students should fill out the NTU Department of Sociology Thesis Advisor Form.

Students can apply for changing their thesis advisors with the permission of the Department Chair.

Thesis advisors can terminate their advising duties with the permission of the Department Chair, under any of the following circumstances:

（1）Students neglect the advisors’ advises on course selection or thesis writing.
（2）Students lose contact with the advisors for a long period of time and without proper reason.
（3）Students change the thesis subject without the permission of their advisors.

Doctoral Qualification Examination

1. Doctoral students should pass the Doctoral Qualification Examination in 3.5 years. Students who give birth can have a spare year after passing the Doctoral Qualification Examination; for other special circumstances, students can apply for a spare year with the permission of the Graduate Institute Committee.
2. Students should choose two specialized fields as their Doctoral Qualification Examination subjects. The subjects have to be recommended by the thesis advisor and approved by the Graduate Institute Committee.
3. The Doctoral Qualification Examination aims to ensure students have a thorough understanding of the literature of their selected sociology fields. Each exam subject is generally conducted as an eight-hour on-site test. However, to adapt to technological changes and accommodate more diverse exam subjects, with the agreement of the advisor, Graduate Institute Committee coordinator, and Department Chair, it is permissible to conduct the exam in the form of a publishable journal literature review article or other formats.
4. If students want to change the Doctoral Qualification Examination subjects due to alternation of their research interests, they should do so with the recommendation of their thesis advisors and the permission from the Graduate Institute Committee.
5. Process and notes for application for the Doctoral Qualification Examination:

• Discussion with Thesis Advisor: Discuss with your thesis advisor to confirm the subjects and time for the Qualification Exam. You should choose two specialized fields as your exam subjects, which need to be recommended by your advisor and approved by the Graduate Institute Committee to be valid.
• Application Process: Go to the Department office to apply for the Qualification Exam and confirm the exam time.
  • If a subject already has a coordinator, the Department office will provide the exam candidate with past exam questions and a reading list, and contact the coordinator.
  • If a subject does not have a coordinator, the Graduate Student Committee will appoint one after consulting with the exam candidate.
• Discussion with Coordinator: The exam candidate and the coordinator discuss and confirm the reading list for the Qualification Exam. The coordinator must submit this reading list, along with the names of one question setter and one grader, to the Graduate Student Committee for confirmation at least two weeks before the exam. Each exam subject should have two question setters and one additional grader, with at least one of the three graders being an non-NTU member. The question setters and graders are appointed by the Department Chair based on the recommendation of the Graduate Institute Committee.
• Provision of Exam Questions: The coordinator should compile and provide the exam questions to the department office two days before the exam.
• Grading Standards: The grading standards for the Qualification Exam are as follows: Excellent (90 points and above), Good (80-89 points), Pass (70-79 points), and Fail (below 69 points). The exam score is the average of the total scores from the three graders, with 70 points and above considered as passing.
• Notification of Results: The graders must inform the department office of the exam results within two weeks after the exam. The Department office will collect the results from all three graders and inform the coordinator, who will then announce the results to the exam candidate. Retaking the qualification exam is limited to one attempt. If a candidate fails the retake, they will be dismissed from the Doctoral program.

Thesis Outline Examination

Students must pass the Doctoral Qualification Examination to be qualified as Doctoral candidates and qualified to apply for the Thesis Outline Examination. The Examination Committee should be consist of five to nine members, with the thesis advisor being the ex officio member and at least one-third of the members must not be from the Department of Sociology.

Doctoral Thesis Oral Examination

1. The Doctoral candidates must pass the Thesis Outline Examination to apply for the Doctoral Thesis Oral Examination.
2. When applying for the Doctoral Thesis Oral Examination, Doctoral candidates must submit a paper that has been published in a journal with a rigorous review system or a monograph paper that has undergone anonymous review by more than two reviewers. The paper must have been published after enrollment and the candidate must be the first author.

The Examination Committee should be consist of five to nine members, with the thesis advisor being the ex officio member and at least one-third of the members must be non-NTU members.