Duration of Study
Ph.D. students shall complete the graduation requirements for the degree within the regular study duration of seven years (a minimum of two years and a maximum of seven years).

Coursework Requirements
1. Students of the Ph.D. program in literature are required to complete a minimum of 30 credits, excluding the 12 credits designed for the dissertation, for graduation.
2. Students must take at least 3 courses from the following 4 categories, and each course selected must be from a different category.

• British Literature before Romanticism
• British Literature since Romanticism
• American Literature
• Literary Theory

3. Other elective courses may be required at the discretion of the advisor on a case-by-case basis.
4. With the consent of the dissertation advisor or the Chair, doctoral students may take courses at another graduate institute accredited by the Ministry of Education. A maximum of nine credits, including those taken prior to admission into this program, can be transferred and counted towards the minimum credit requirements for graduation. The credit waiver is applicable on the condition that the same courses are offered by the FLLD Ph.D. program in literature. Applications for credit waiver for graduate courses taken prior to admission shall be completed within two months of enrollment.

Second Foreign Language Requirement
Ph.D. students must demonstrate reading and writing proficiency in two foreign languages. Those whose first foreign language is English are required to be proficient in German, French, Spanish, or Japanese as their second foreign language (Chinese is included as one of the second foreign language options for students whose native language is not Chinese). Students are required to study one of the five second foreign languages for two years (at least 8 credits) and earn a passing grade of 60 or above. These credits are excluded from the minimum of graduation credits. The second foreign language requirement may be waived for students who, within four years prior to official enrollment, have studied a second foreign language for at least two years (at least 8 credits) at a university or college accredited by the Ministry of Education and earned a grade of at least 60. Students who wish to waive the second foreign language requirement must submit their application, accompanied by an official transcript, by the end of the first week of enrollment. Ph.D. students not qualified for the second foreign language requirement exemption may, by the end of the third week of enrollment, apply for a language proficiency examination and have the requirement waived with an exam score of at least 60. Otherwise, students are required to take a second foreign language course for two years (a minimum of 8 credits) and earn a passing grade of at least 60.

Qualifying Examination
The qualifying examination consists of two written exams: the Reading List Exam and the Specialty Exam.
1. The Reading List Exam is based on the reading list of literary works and literary theories proposed by the FLLD. The application for the exam shall be made before the 4th year of enrollment. The exam, administered once per semester, should be held by the end of October in fall and by the end of March in spring. It is a closed-book, hand-written exam. To use a laptop for the exam, an Affidavit for Ph.D. Exam Applicant must be signed beforehand and the laptop will be provided by the FLLD. The Reading List Exam should be held on two consecutive days, with British Literature scheduled for the first day and American Literature and Literary Theory scheduled for the second. The examinee is required to answer eight questions, two from each of the four categories. A minimum of three questions are designed for each category. The identity of the examinee shall not be disclosed until the official result comes out. The total test time is four hours each day. A score of 100 for the test of each subject shall be identified as a full mark and an average score of 70 or above as passing. The results will be available within two weeks after the exam. Students who fail the exam are allowed to take it again within one year. A third try is only allowed under special circumstances and with the approval of a committee (formed by the advisor or the Chair). Students shall not apply for the Specialty Exam until after they pass the Reading List Exam.
2. The Specialty Exam is to be taken after all course requirements are fulfilled and the student has already passed the Reading List Exam. When applying for this exam, students should submit two reading lists: one correlated to the Ph.D. dissertation and the other relevant to the dissertation and yet with historical and genre distinctions from the first reading list. The student, with guidance from the advisor and the Specialty Exam committee, prepares the lists with a minimum of 50 items for each part. The final lists must be approved by the committee. The two parts of the Specialty Exam must be taken within the same week. Students who fail either part of the exam can apply for a make-up exam. A third try is only allowed under special circumstances with the approval of the Specialty Exam committee formed by the advisor.
3. In place of the Specialty Exam, students may complete two additional publications in their area of specialization beyond those completed for the Publication Requirement described in V. below. These publications should have a clear connection to the Ph.D. dissertation and may also relate to the historical and genre connections to the dissertation topic. This relevance will be determined with guidance from the advisor. The articles should be published in a journal of a national university or one listed on the Taiwan Humanities Citation Index (THCI) or the Arts and Humanities Citation Index (A and HCI).
4. Doctoral students are required to complete the qualifying examinations within the first five years of enrollment. Those who pass the qualifying examination are entitled to apply for Ph.D. candidacy.

Publication Requirements
To be qualified for the dissertation defense, Ph.D. students need to have at least two publications. Among them, at least one paper must be published in a journal of a national university or one included in the official MOST ranking list; the other can be a paper presented at an international conference.

Doctoral Dissertation (12 credits)
1. Doctoral students must complete the qualifying exams before they advance to their Ph. D. candidacy.
2. Following successful advancement to candidacy, doctoral students shall begin to work on a dissertation.
3. A Ph.D. candidate shall select a research topic of either English/American Literature or Comparative Literature in consultation with his/her dissertation advisor. Based on the selected topic, the candidate must submit a dissertation proposal to the advisor for approval before beginning dissertation writing. The candidate shall maintain contact with the advisor during the dissertation process.
4. Candidates shall submit an online application two months in advance for dissertation defense, which shall be completed within two months after submission. Candidates are allowed to apply for the dissertation defense starting, at the earliest, in the third week of class each semester (applicable to those officially enrolled for the semester), but no later than December 5 in the fall semester and May 5 in the spring semester. Upon completion of the online application, candidates shall submit to the FLLD office a package of documents including:

• a completed checklist of graduation qualifications
• a completed application form for degree examination (signed by the advisor)
• a transcript
• a printed draft of the dissertation
• a list of publications with related documents; and (6) a certificate of qualifying exam results.

5. When preparing the dissertation for submission, candidates must follow the NCKU Guidelines for Writers of Research Papers (成功大學論文撰寫須知) and program-designated requirements. The dissertation should be typed and completed according to the latest version of the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, in a minimum of 54,000 words with a number of 24 to 26 lines set for each page. The completed dissertation shall be bound in a book form for submission. For other related formatting specifications, please refer to the webpage of the NCKU Library at http://cid.acad.ncku.edu.tw/var/file/42/1042/img/3133795.pdf.
6. Before the dissertation defense, candidates are required to make a dissertation presentation in a graduate student seminar organized by the FLLD office.
7. Upon completion of a dissertation and approval by the advisor, a candidate may apply to the FLLD office for a dissertation defense. A five-member committee will then be formed for the defense, including the advisor and two off-campus professors. The candidate must submit a written statement about the names, affiliations, and specialties of the committee members. Candidates must pass the dissertation defense to qualify for Ph.D. degree conferral. A candidate who fails the first time shall be allowed a second try only.
8. FLLD students shall not commit violations of academic integrity. If a thesis, dissertation, creative writing, performance, written report or technical report is found to have involved plagiarism, ghost authorship, double submission or other such acts, a grade of zero will be given to the work in question. In addition, the FLLD will consider the severity of violation based on the NCKU Regulations on Student Rewards and Penalties (國立成功大學學生獎懲要點) to decide whether to publicize the incident, to expel the violator from school or to enact any other appropriate punishment. It should be noted that a doctoral degree could be revoked as a result of a grave violation of this nature.

Dissertation Advising
1. Doctoral students shall choose a professor from the FLLD fulltime faculty to serve as dissertation advisor. If a doctoral student needs an adjunct or fulltime faculty member from NCKU to serve as a dissertation co-advisor, the principal advisor is entitled to recommend one.
2. A dissertation advisor must be confirmed by the end of the second academic year. The dissertation advisor will then provide the advisee with guidance on his/her academic performance and research writing.
3. Should the need arise for a change of dissertation advisor, students shall make an application according to the FLLD-designated regulations for thesis/dissertation advising. A completed Application Form for Change of Thesis/Dissertation Advisor (更換指導教授同意書) shall be submitted with a written report, which shall be approved by both the original and new advisors, and the department chair before the change takes effect.