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Guidelines for Bio Ph.D. Program
Revised by Bio program committee 5/23/2017
Revised by Bio program Academic Committee 9/6/2016.
Revised by Bio program Academic Committee 11/18/2015.
Revised by Bio program Academic Committee
6/28/2019.
(This document is only applicable to students who are
admitted of TIGP Bio program of Academic Sinica from 2019.)
I.
Course Requirements, Credit Requirements and Time
Limitation
1.
Required Courses and credits:
(1)
Seminar:
6 semesters;
1 credit per semester.
(Does not consider as graduation
credits)
(2)
Student
Presentation:
4 semesters ;1 credit per semester.
(Has to fulfill within the first 3
years)
(3)
Lab Rotation:
2 semesters; 0 credit per semester.
(4)
*Research Thesis :
NCTU Students: 2
semesters, 1credit per semester (offered by NCTU only
) ;
(5)
*Research Thesis Proposal:
NTU Students : 1semester with 0 credit (offered
by NTU and has to be fulfilled 1 semester prior to
graduation)
2.
Core Courses (I) and credits: (Required)
(1) Basic Molecular Biology I (B1): 1 semester; 3
credits per semester.
(2) Biological Computing I (C1):
1 semester; 3 credits
per semester.
(3) Fundamental Statistical Methods in
Bioinformatics
(S1): 1 semester; 3 credits.
(4)
Programming (Python) (P1): 1 semester; 2 credits.
3.
Core Courses
Courses (II) and credits : (Mandatory)
(1)
Basic Molecular Biology II (B2): 1 semester; 3
credits per semester.
(2)
Advanced Algorithms
(C2): 1 semester; 3 credits per semester
(3) Statistical Methods in Bioinformatics
(S2): 1 semester; 3 credits.
4.
Elective Courses and credits:
Any other courses (offered by TIGP or partner universities) that are
approved by the Curriculum Committee of BP.
5.
For students with a Master’s degree, 24 credits are
required.
6.
For students with a Bachelor’s degree, 30 credits are
required (24 credits need to be Ph.D. level courses).
7.
The duration of Ph.D. study needs to be at least
three years and at most seven years, starting from the date
of registration with their university.
II.
Thesis Advisor
1.
Students need to find a thesis advisor, and hand in
the “Thesis Advisor Form” to the program committee before
the end of first year. When changing thesis advisors,
students need to hand in the “Form for Changing Thesis
Advisor” to the program committee.
2.
Student can only select thesis advisors from the core
faculties of the TIGP Bio program. Core faculties are
faculties from collaborating universities and institutes of
Academia Sinica who are involved in this program, and have
been approved by the program committee.
III.
Qualifying Exam
Students need to pass the TIGP Bio’s qualifying exam before
the end of their
second
year; those who fail to do so will be
expelled from the program. Applications are available at the
beginning of February every year.
*TIGP Bio’s qualifying exam: written qualifying exam could
be waived for students whose course grade is 90/100 or
higher.
a. qualifying exam score for the waived subject will be
70/100.
b. student can still choose to take the written exam and use
it as exam score.
c. student who is qualified for waiving of Qualifying Exam
could choose
either of above two options as exam score after taking
Qualifying
Exam. The score couldn’t be changed once the choice is made.
IV.
Advancement to Candidacy Status
Students obtain the Ph.D. candidacy status if they fulfill
the following requirements:
1.
Complete required courses and credits.
2.
Pass TIGP Bio’s qualifying exam.
3.
Students registered with National Chiao Tung
University are required to complete their oral examination
along with their thesis proposal examination, and submit all
supporting documents before the end of their third year.
V.
Thesis Proposal
Students registered with National Tsing Hua University are
required to pass their thesis proposal examination
administered by their thesis advisory committee before the
end of their fourth year.
VI.
Defense
1.
Prerequisites
(1)
Have advanced and maintained the candidacy status.
(2)
In principle, students should publish at least two
bioinformatics-related papers in any international journal
or conference. The journal, conference, content and quality
of the paper, or any other special circumstances will be
assessed by the TIGP Bio program committee. Students should
be the first author of the aforementioned papers; TIGP
Bioinformatics and the university with which the student is
registered must be listed in the affiliation section of the
papers. *
*The pre-requisite for
Publications also can be fulfilled if a
bioinformatics-
related paper is published with the following
conditions:
A. Be the first author of the paper.
B.
TIGP
Bioinformatics and the university with which the student is
registered must be listed in the affiliation section of the
paper.
C. The Impact Factor of the aforesaid journal / conference
has to be greater
than 4
in one of the past 3 years of which paper is published (
Exclude the
published year) .
*NTHU
students are required to have 2 papers (minimum 1
first-author paper)
to be qualified for applying Oral
Defense.
(3)
Students registered with National Tsing Hua
University and National Chiao Tung University need to pass
one of the following English proficiency test:
*TOEFL:
550 PBT, 213 CBT, 79 IBT
*GEPT(NTHU
only): high-intermediate level certificate
*IELTS(NTHU
only): above 6.0
*TOEIC:
above 750.
(4)
Thesis should be approved by the student’s advisor
before being reviewed.
2.
Application Procedure
PhD
candidates should follow the calendar set by the university
with which the student is registered when applying for
Defense Examination. Students should have application form,
transcript, and thesis manuscript ready two weeks before the
date of defense, and hand them in to the TIGP Bio office for
review by the TIGP Bio program committee. Once the Defense
Committee members have been approved by the TIGP Bio program
committee, students should hand in the three abovementioned
documents along with the approved form to the “Office of
Academic Affairs” of the student’s university.
3.
Defense Committee must consist of 5 to 9 members, and
the list of members should be approved by the TIGP Bio
program committee; the advisor of the student shall not be
the chair of the committee. The qualifications of the
committee members should follow the regulations of the
university with which the student is registered.
4.
The grade received is the average of the scores given
anonymously by all the Defense Committee members present,
and is based on the contents of the dissertation and the
performance on the defense examination. The scores are given
only once, with 70 out of 100 being the passing grade. If
one third of the committee members regard the student as
failing the exam, the student does not pass the exam.
5.
Students who fail their defense may re-apply in the
following semester or academic year, before the end of the
stipulated duration of their Ph.D. program. The student can
only have one chance for re-examination. Failure of the
defense for the second time will result in expulsion from
the Ph.D. program.
VII.
Other rules and regulations
1.
Applications for registration, suspension,
resumption, and graduation should follow the rules and
regulations of the university with which the student is
registered. Students should hand in a photo copy of the
aforementioned application form to the TIGP Bio office.
2.
Any rules or regulations that are not mentioned in
these guidelines will be handled in accordance with the
rules and regulations of the university with which the
student is registered.
VIII.
These guidelines and other future amendments are
effective immediately after approval by the TIGP Bio program
committee.
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