(1). Foreign Students Admission Regulations

National Taiwan Ocean University

Foreign Students Admission Regulations

Issued on August 11, 1998

1.            The regulations are based on Article 5 of Foreign Students Studying in ROC issued by the Ministry of Education.

2.            “Foreign students” in the regulations refer to students who are neither overseas Chinese nor those possessing Republic of China citizenship.

Overseas Chinese students who are not Republic of China nationals are eligible to apply for admission either by these regulations or by the "Studying and Consulting Regulations for Overseas Chinese Students Studying in ROC" guidelines.  Applicants found to have applied both as an overseas Chinese student and as a foreign student will have their acceptance rescinded or expelled.

3.            Foreign students applying to study in the ROC must follow the same admission procedure as domestic students who have completed the applied courses and are furthering their education. Applicants who violate this regulation will be deprived of entrance qualification and student status.

4.            Each department and college shall report the expected number of enrolled foreign students and newly admitted foreign students for the next semester to the Academic Affairs Office by the tenth of January.  The maximum number of foreign students enrolled in each department/college each academic year shall not exceed one-fifth of domestic students.  However, the number of foreign students admitted can change with a special request to the International Academic Cooperation Plans and approval by the Ministry of Education.

5.            The requisite qualification for the admission of foreign students is successful completion of required courses from the student's previous school.  Chinese language ability is also required.

6.            Applicants are required to submit the following documents to the National Taiwan OceanUniversity .  The closing date of submission is April 30.

I.               One copy of application form.

II.             One photocopy of the highest diploma already obtained in a foreign country (recently graduated students can submit a certificate of graduation as an alternative.) along with a notarized Chinese or English version.  A complete transcript of academic records in English must also be included.

III.            Two letters of recommendation.

IV.         A copy of health certificate from a licensed doctor, stating the health situation of the applicant and an HIV virus blood serum immunity test report.

V.           Study plan in Chinese or English.

VI.         Certification of financial support for the period of study.

VII.        Other documents required by each department/college.

VIII.      Health and certificates of injury insurance should be submitted upon registration.  Admitted students without any insurance should buy insurance. The National Taiwan Ocean Universitycan suggest an insurance agency upon request.

7.            Lectures at the National Taiwan Ocean University are in Chinese.  Every department/college requires applicants to have Chinese listening, speaking, reading, and writing abilities.

8.            The admission of applicants should be first examined by every department/college and then reexamined by the Foreign Students Entrance Examination Commission.

9.            The members of the Foreign Students Entrance Examination Commission include dean of the Academic Affairs Office, college heads of relevant departments, chiefs of department, and deans of graduate schools.  The dean serves as the chairperson of the commission.  Foreign students accepted by a department/college will be examined and final admission will be granted by the commission.

10.       Applicants may be asked to take professional tests on their majors or tests of Chinese proficiency by department/college during the first examination.

11.       Applicants with a foreign university degree (approved by the Ministry of Education) and who posses ROC residence can apply for admission as auditors (not registered students) of graduate schools in National Taiwan Ocean University .  Application forms and documents are the same as that of formal candidates.

12.       Foreign auditors should choose courses and pay tuition the same way as formal candidates. The Academic Affairs Office will issue certification of credit to auditors who pass their courses. 

13.       The credits took by foreign auditors who obtain formal student status at the National TaiwanOcean University will be recognized after approving by the deans of department/college.

14.       Foreign auditors who are considered not suitable to study at the University by the registered department/college committee will be suspended or expelled.

15.       Foreign students who have applied and completed university or graduate programs according to the regulations of Foreign Students Studying in ROC or had suspended study are not eligible to apply to the University.  Applicants found to have violated this regulation will have their acceptance rescinded or expelled.

16.  Foreign students who study a degree or take courses must pay the same tuition and/or credit fee as domestic students.  Applicants can also apply for scholarships from the Ministry of Education according to “Foreign Students Scholarship Regulations of the Ministry of Education.”

17.       Points not mentioned in this regulation should be conducted according to “Foreign Students Studying in ROC” issued by the Ministry of Education.

18. These regulations as well as all modifications were developed by the Academic Affairs Conference and approved by the Ministry of Education.

(2). Master and PhD University Constitution

1.      In the early beginning of a semester, a postgraduate student shall make an appointment with the assigned professor to discuss future studies. When one begins to work on dissertation or thesis of research project, the student will be supervised by an assigned professor according to these regulations. 

2.      In addition to the thesis or dissertation module, a postgraduate student shall also take other courses. A master program student shall take at least 24 credits; however, if one plans to pursue PhD, he/she will need to take at least 18 credits. In the PhD program, a student shall take at least 30 credits. Dissertation or thesis is considered as additional credits.

3.      Each postgraduate program includes compulsory and optional credits. When a student takes undergraduate courses, one shall pay attention to the maximum of credits. The results of the courses will be added into one’s mark sheet. However, if the courses are similar to postgraduate courses, the results will be re-examined by the examiners from the postgraduate program, afterward, will be sent to the office of academic affairs for further examination.

4.      The distinction of course results for master program students is 100, and the students shall have 70 for passing courses. If the students fail the courses, they have to re-take the courses.

5.   The passing scores for master program students, transferred students, and doctoral program students are regulated by the academic degree’s examiners.

6.    Master program students shall finish the courses within 4 years, and PhD candidates shall finish the courses within 7 years. Those who cannot finish their study in regulated time will be expelled. Part-time postgraduate students shall finish the courses within 4 years for master program and 7 years for PhD. If they cannot finish the courses or dissertation, they can prolong their study for one year.  

Application for admission is based on the first day of the semester.

 1. Foreign students who have completed their studies in Taiwan and plan to study in other schools shall share the same application procedures with the domestic students.

 2. Each academic department should report allocated number of foreign students and admission requirements for the next school year to Academic Affairs by the tenth of each January. The maximum number of foreign students enrolled in each department per academic year should not exceed 10% of the total number of students.

 3. Application requirements for foreign students are set by each department.

 4. Applicants are required to submit the following documents to Academic Affairs no later than April 30:

     One copy of Application

     One copy of the latest acquired degree certificate obtained from the foreign institution and a complete official English transcript.

     Two letters of recommendation from teachers.

     A copy of health certificate from a licensed doctor, which shall statethe health condition of the applicant along with an HIV test report.

     A study plan (in Chinese or in English).

     A certification of financial support for the study.

     Other documents required by each department.

     A certificate of health and accidental insurance is required upon registration. Students without any insurance are required to pay for an insurance fee.

   According to the verification regulations promulgated by the Ministry of Education, except Taipei Schools and other Overseas Chinese schools, the students with other foreign school certification shall process the verification procedures.     

5. The foreign students who have finished the overseas high schools in Taiwan or have graduated from the bilingual department of the domestic high schools can apply NTOU with their senior high certificate.

6. Lectures at the undergraduate school are taught in Chinese.  Lectures at the graduate school are taught in English or Chinese.

7. The qualification of applicants will be reviewed first by each department; a second review is carried out by the Foreign Students Entrance Examination Commission.

8. The members of the Foreign Students Entrance Examination Commission include the Dean of the Academic Affairs, the Dean of each college, the department Chair of each department, and the Dean of graduate school.  The Dean of Academic Affairs serves as the chairperson of the Commission.  Foreign students accepted by a department are re-examined and approved by the Commission.

9. In the first-reviewing stage, the applicants will be asked to take professional exams or language test if necessary.

10. The foreign exchange students who already hold a foreign university degree (shall process the verification procedures) can audit in postgraduate courses. The required documents are the same as the domestic postgraduate applicants. The foreign student cannot use audition as the residence-right application document. 

11. The foreign auditing students must follow the same procedures for class selections, registration, and tuition payment as the domestic degree candidates.  Academic Affairs will issue certification of credits to auditing students who pass their courses. 

12.If the foreign students who audit in the postgraduate courses acquire official admission later can exempt the credits upon approved by the department chairman  

13. If the departments decide the foreign exchange student not proper to continue their studies, their admission will be suspended upon approved by the committee.

14.  Foreign students who have been expelled by any university or college in the ROC are not eligible to apply for NTOU admission under this regulation.  Applicants found to violate this regulation will have their admission nullified or student status revoked. 

15. The foreign students must pay the same tuition and/or credit fee as the domestic students. The applicants may also apply for scholarships from the Ministry of Education via Student Affairs. Rules and regulations for such scholarship are stated in the Regulations for Issuing Scholarship to Foreign Students.

Student Affairs may provide counseling services and may hold irregular counseling activities for the foreign students.

(3). Master and PhD University Regulations

1. Freshmen candidates who due to particular causes, such as undergoing a long term treatment in recovering for illness, academic military matter, or others, are not be able to participate in the current curriculum, are obliged to confirm it to the university by enclosing the proofs referred at least 2 weeks before the registration time. The permission applying the admission right, after getting the school’s approval will be valid for one year afterward. If it is because of academic military matter, students have to continue apply for the permission until the academic military period ends. If students pass the time limit, the admission right will be cancelled.

2. Students having inadequate credits and used to absent for the term of all courses, furthermore are failed to attain the attendance for two-third of the semester all courses-time, are to get score reduction of total scores for all-courses. Moreover, the university will perform disciplinary action necessary, for example, to have the student suspended for certain period of time.
Student who for certain course are failed to acquire the attendances for two-third of the semester time for the course are to get no credit (zero point) for his/her score of the respective course. The penalty will be applied by the student affairs committee at the semester final exam. The committee will announce further notification for student in place.

3. The university states the regulations for furlough matters as follows;

1). The registered student who is willing to apply for the furlough has to hand over the letter of the consent signed by the parent or its representative (in exception, for married student or under special condition).

2). The registered student who is willing to apply for the furlough has to properly fill in a furlough-proposal-form and hand it over to the admission office, according to the valid procedure. After getting the approval, the student will be given the acknowledgement letter proving the right for the furlough, and then may leave.

3). The student can only have furlough for at least one semester to at the most two years long. However, if a severe illness or other particular causes required the student to prolong the time given, but have to obtain the university approval.

4). Listed below are the cases which might enforce the student to be suspended.

1.  After the registration, if the student has to much permission not to attend the classes for whatever reasons for the term of one semester so that the time passes one-third of the total credit.

2.  When student get less than one-half of the total credits of a semester.

3.  For student who suffers a contagious illness that causes him/her may not be fully recovered for a short period of time. Consequently, in this case the supported acknowledgement letter of a qualified medical institution will be necessary.

4.  When violating the university rules which lead to create a big fault.

5.  After the registration, the student doesn’t properly select and register his courses for the semester within the given time.

6.  Due to the reward-punishment rules which determine the student have to postpone.

5.  The student who postpone his study anywhere in the middle of the semester, all of his scores he attained are not to be valid.

6.  The student who for any reason is forced to postpone his study, after receiving the notification letter from the admission committee, has to immediately take the permission letter for leaving school and taking care of all the problems related as well.
For example, within 3 weeks, he/she doesn’t return school’s public inventory or the letter of consent, school reserves the rights to ask for compensation to the parent or its representative in otherwise, and also has the student expelled if necessary.

4.  The master program student, for example, has 100 as the maximum score for each of the course subject, 70 or more are defined to be the standard the score for passing. As if the student fails, there will be no remedial; therefore he/she has to retake the course. The graduation score for master program students, transferred students, and doctoral program students is the average score of all of the schoolwork average score added by the academic degree’s examination score.

5.  Master program students have the time range for finishing his study in within one to four years.
Doctoral program students have the time range in within two to seven years. For master program students who are willing to pursue for further education to doctoral program may finish his study at least after two years. When a student undergoes a studying progress more than four years (for master program) or seven years (for doctoral program) because he hasn’t finished his compulsory course for credits or hasn’t finished his thesis yet, consequently need to prolong his time for studying, the school shall only give longer.

6.  Listed below are the points related to academic achievement of the student which may cause student to be expelled

1).  When a student undergoes a maximum limit of studying time which is 4 years for master or 7 years for doctoral programs, and haven’t completed his compulsory course or have the adequate credits to pass, therefore get additional year, but still haven’t been able to pass yet.

2).  As a doctoral program student, fails when taking the graduating exam, and then be given a chance to retake the exam, but still not be able to pass.

3). Fails at the exam and cannot fulfill the condition to take the remedial exam, or fulfill the condition to take the exam but again fails.

4).  Not take more than two courses semester exam (midterm or final) or disobey the rule made by teachers to hand in their reports.

7. A student who has completed all the compulsory courses and the appropriate credits, has the appropriate behavior for every semester to pass, and has his final exam passed, are eligible to graduate. The school will award the student according to the rules for master or doctoral degree and issue the certificate.

(4). Registration Regulations

If students cannot finish registration process before due date, they shall explain their reasons in written form and shall process ask-for-leave procedures. With the approval of the NTOU, the students can re-register; however, they have to pay the fine (for late registering) unless their late registrations are due to some special accidents. Except the freshmen whose ask-for-leave and admission reservation applications are approved by the NTOU, one cannot finish the registration procedures in due date, his/her admission will be cancelled.