1. PhD students have to complete the doctoral program between two and seven years. Graduate students transferring directly into doctoral program also need to complete the doctoral program between two and seven years from the date they become PhD students.

2. PhD students of the Institute have to complete at least 18 course credits (excluding the PhD dissertation). From the beginning of transferring into the doctoral program, the PhD students have to spend at least two years completing the doctoral program and complete at least 30 credits of courses including master's courses (excluding the Ph.D. dissertation). The required courses are as follows:

(1) The advising professors help their students choose one appropriate independent study course given by a professor other than themselves.
(2) At least two years' of seminar courses with two credits (one two-semester course with zero credit; one two-semester course with 2 credits).

3. PhD students should present the research or study plan for their dissertation in the "seminar" each year. The presentation for the first year is arranged in the second semester, and every PhD student has 25 minutes to present his/her plan, which will be rated by all the professors, who will then provide the students with written suggestions as references for improvement. Under special circumstances (such as seminar report combined with (pre-) oral defense), the PhD students may submit an application to the Academic Committee for approval, and postpone their reports until the next semester after the approval is granted, but each PhD student can only postpone his/her report once.

4. Waivers of course credits needed for graduation regulations for PhD program:

(1) Waivers are limited to the atmospheric courses of which the codes start with M or D, which have been completed within the last five years (excluding military services or pregnancy) and have never been waived and the grade points need to be higher than 80.
(2) The waived credits must not exceed half the credits needed for graduation.
(3) Seminars and courses related to independent study cannot be waived.
(4) The students should fill out the application form, positively indicate whether the course has been waived, and submit it to the Academic Committee for approval.

5. The doctoral dissertation (12 credits) should be conducted during the semester when the PhD dissertation defense is held. For the information about how to write a thesis, please refer to the Academic Writing Education Center, NTU(http://www.awec.ntu.edu.tw/)

6. Every PhD student's advising professor must be one of those full-time professors at the Department.