1. Students must pass all courses and credits required by the program. In addition to the required 12 credits for thesis, PhD students are required to fulfill 18 course credits during the study period (2 to 7 years). For students without a master’s degree are required to fulfill 30 course credits during the study period.
2. Students pass the Qualifying Examination for Ph.D. candidacy and also complete one of the approved English language tests(for non-English speaking countries):
   •GEPT (General English Proficiency Test, Taiwan): High-intermediate level.
   •TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) – Internet Based Test (71).
   •IELTS (International English Language Testing Systems): Academic Version (5.5).
   •TOEIC (Test of English for International Communication): 750 and TOEIC SW: 160(S)、150(W)
3. A draft of the thesis must be reviewed and approved by the student’s thesis advisor before submitting to the thesis committee.
4. Under special circumstances, one may be considered upon recommendation of the Thesis Advisory Committee, followed by approval from the Program Coordinators Meeting (or the Program Steering Committee).
5. Before graduation, students are required to take seminar courses for 6 semesters. Courses (I) to (IV) are 1-credit courses, and courses (V) to (VI) are 0-credit courses.
6. Students need to publish at least :
   (A) First-author original article which has been accepted by a Science Citation Index (SCI) or (Social Science Citation Index , SSCI) listed journal (must be in the top 20% of the field)
   (B) OR two first-author original articles in scientific journals, and one of them must be a SCI (SSCI) listed journal in the top 50% of the field.

※ All the publications and presentations must be approved by the Thesis Advisory Committee.
※ The content of all publications must relevant to his (her) doctoral dissertation.
※ The adviser or co-adviser must be the corresponding author of all publications.
※For published papers, students, adviser and co-adviser must list Institute of Medical Sciences, Tzu Chi University as an affiliate.

The form is for apply oral defense：

Recommendation form for the oral examination of Ph.D degree
Thesis evaluation form
Doctoral Dissertation Format and written Guide