Academic Qualifications

Rules for Academic Qualification

Students have three options to achieve the academic qualifications by taking qualifying examinations, attending qualified conferences or publishing paper in SCI/SSCI journal.

PhD students enrolled before 2022 Spring (110-2)

1. Every student must pass the two qualifying assessments within the first three years of his or her enrollment.
2. The two qualifying assessments are within the fields of “Field of Expertise” and “Method & Application”.
   • For “Field of Expertise”, students can choose to either take a qualification exam or attend a qualified conference in lieu of the exam. The Field of Expertise will base on current full‐time IIMBA advisor’s field of expertise.
   • For “Method & Application, students can choose to either take a qualification exam or attend a qualified conference in lieu of the exam.
3. Students may be allowed to waive one qualifying assessment by publishing one SCI/SSCI However, this paper cannot be resubmitted to apply for the PUBLICATION OF ACADEMIC JOURNAL PAPERS at Stage Four.
4. Students may be allowed a further year to satisfy the two qualifying assessments under special conditions approved by his/her advisor and Doctoral Committee (or Academic Committee); otherwise, students may be withdrawn from the program. Application procedures to prolong for 1 more year on qualifying assessments need to be filed during the student’s 5th semester and completed by the student’s 6th semester.

PhD students enrolled after 2022 Fall (111-1)

1. Every student must pass the “Field of Expertise” qualifying assessment within the 1st (first) year of his or her enrollment. 

    

   Timeline for Applying Qualifying Examination:

   Fall batch:

   Submit a qualifying exam application to the IMBA office in the second semester (before end of May) and take the exam at the start of the third semester (before September 15).

   Spring batch:

   Submit a qualifying exam application to the IMBA office in the second semester (before end of November) and take the exam at the start of the third semester (before February 15).

    

   If students fail their first qualifying exam, they can take the make-up exam within the same semester, which should be scheduled within 3 months after the first exam.

   Failure to pass the qualifying assessments twice will result in withdrawal from the program.

2. Every student need to complete one of the following within the 2nd (second) year of his or her enrollment:

    

   A. Publish papers in international conferences that are recognized by the IMBA and recommended by the National Science and Technology Council (including those that take turns being organized in Taiwan). The conference paper should not include a third author, except for advisors. 

   If students fail to meet the deadline for conference publication, they may apply with acceptance letter from conference beforehand. After attending and presenting at the conference, proof of presentation must be submitted to the department office.

    

   B. Publication of academic journal papers that fulfill the graduation requirement and reach review process. Papers cannot include a third author, except for advisors. If there are other students participating in the paper, the points will be divided by the number of students listed in the authors’ list of the paper. If there are two students on the list of authors, each will receive 1/2 points. Likewise, a count of 1/3 point is given for three students in the authors’ list, etc. The identification of student status shall be based on the time of participation in the research.

    

   C. Conference papers and journal publication for academic qualification must not be directly rewritten from the student's own master's thesis.

    

   *The final qualifying academic results must be reviewed and approved by the Doctoral Committee.

   *Failure to pass the qualifying assessments will result in withdrawal from the program.