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1. Doctoral degree examinations are divided into three parts:

(1) Annual review and qualification test
(2) PhD pre-oral defense
(3) PhD dissertation oral defense

2.Annual assessment and qualification test

(1) Within three months after the admission of a PhD student into the Department, a PhD candidate qualification assessment committee must be set up, responsible for offering the student suggestions about how to choose courses, the annual assessments and qualification exams.
(2) A qualification assessment committee consists of five members, and the advising professor serves ex-officio as a member and the convener of the committee. As for the other four members, the convener recommends two members and the Examination Committee and the Academic Committee jointly recommend two members, appointed after the Institute Director approves. The members should be qualified to serve as a member of doctoral degree examination committee according to the Degree Conferral Law. The members should be served by full-time assistant professors or higher rank professors at NTU in principle, or qualified full-time assistant professors (or people of the same rank) or higher rank professors from other universities, whose expertise is related to the PhD candidate's research field, or jointly appointed by NTU, or part-time assistant professors or higher rank professors. When members need to be changed, the new members will be recruited in the same way.
(3) Every PhD student should be assessed by the qualification assessment committee once per academic year. The assessment is mainly aimed to the reports of seminars, study and research progress. The assessment should be completed within one month after the final exam of the second semester of each academic year is completed. The Institute Director collects the present professors' ratings and assessments for the seminar report by the PhD student, and provides them for the assessment commission as a basis for the annual assessment.
(4) PhD students who fail two annual assessments within the required period may flunk out of the doctoral program.
(5) After the assessment, the members of qualification assessment committee should provide suggestions about the study and course selection for the student being assessed.
(6) Every PhD student must pass the qualification test within three years after enrolment. The assessment committee gives the test and decides whether the student passes it. The qualification test can be merged into the current annual assessment.
(7) PhD students who fail the qualification test may take the test 6 months later. Those who fail the qualification test twice may flunk out of the doctoral program.
(8) Students who fail to complete an annual assessment or pass the qualification test within the said period due to special conditions (such as pregnancy, illness, or injuries) may submit an application after his advising professor agrees, to the Examination Committee of the Department for approval, and postpone the annual assessment or the qualification test for at most one year after the approval is granted.
(9) PhD students may use a published SCI-Extended paper (or has been accepted for publication) related to the atmospheric sciences, of which he/she is the first author or not less than the second author, or not less than the second author of an SCI paper (the author's address and the name of unit he belongs to must be those of the Department) to apply for exemption from the qualification test. After the assessment committee confirms and grants approval, the student is deemed to pass the qualification test. The paper must be a research result achieved after the student gets his/her master's degree. After the exemption application is accepted, the paper must not be listed as one of the SCI papers required for graduation.

3. PhD pre-oral defense

(1) Each student is required to pass the PhD pre-oral defense chiefly based on the dissertation proposal within four years after enrollment (for those in-service training student the deadline can be extended another year). The pre-oral defense is carried out by the student's qualification examination committee. If the assessment members think it is necessary to change the deadline because of research progress, the related application should be submitted to the Department for approval in accordance with the provisions.
(2) Students who conditionally pass the PhD pre-oral defense must pass it within a year, and students who fail the pre-oral defense flunk out of the doctoral program.

4. Each student should submit their draft dissertation two weeks before the doctoral oral defense to members of oral defense committee for review.

5. After passing the qualification evaluation and assessment, the student must publish another SCI paper related to the atmospheric sciences, of which he/she is the first author (the author's address and the name of unit he belongs to must be those of the Department), and then the student may apply for a doctorate examination.

6. The PhD dissertation oral defense committee consists of seven members, including four members from the NTU and three from other universities. The advising professor recommends the members of the committee before the pre-oral defense is held, and the members will be invited after the director gives his consent.

7. Graduate students permitted to pursue doctoral degrees should study at least for three semesters from the date they become PhD students, and complete at least 30 credits of courses including master's courses, and then they may apply for doctoral degree examinations.

8. The other relevant regulations are the same as those in the Academic Affairs Charter of the University.

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.

1. Graduate students studying for their master degrees have to complete the master's program between one and four years.

2. The graduate students studying for their master degrees of the Institute have to complete at least 24 course credits (excluding the master's thesis).

3. In response to the definition changes for master class A and master class B, the required courses this year's master classes freshmen must take are as follows:

(1) Students should spend at least two years taking 4 seminar course credits (zero credits for the two semesters in the first year; 4 credits for the two semesters in the second year). To encourage the excellent students to graduate early, students may apply to take the seminar courses with credits earlier. The related regulations are as follows:

● For students who want to graduate one semester earlier (i.e. graduate after one and a half years of study):
        Qualification Review: Excellent students need to be approved by their advising professors first, and apply for taking the seminar courses with credits earlier before January 31 or before July 31. While applying, the applicant needs to submit complete written documents, including the first semester transcript of master class, undergraduate transcript, plan for taking courses in the future, plan for future study, past research performances and outcomes, the sealed recommendation letter written by the advising professor (a clear assessment of the student's performances and potential in learning and research), to the Academic Committee for approval, and take the courses after the approval is granted.

● For students who want to graduate two semesters earlier (i.e. graduate after one year of study):
        The regulation is the same as that mentioned above, except that the first semester transcript of master class is surely not needed and the application needs to be approved by the Review Committee established by the Department Head. And the student will take the seminar courses with credits earlier after the approval is granted.

(2) Other courses a student should take will be determined after the student discusses with his/her advising professor and the approval is given by the professor (students not selecting their advising professors yet should ask the Academic Committee of the Department to help them take courses). Every student has to choose 3 required courses from those listed below. Students who have completed any courses listed below in college may submit an application to the Academic Committee for course waivers approval. And the students do not have to take the waived courses after the approval is granted. But the credits of the courses will not be contained in the required course credits for graduation.

(3)At least half of the number of credits needed for graduation must be the credits of courses offered by the Department (including the courses chosen at NTNU for exchange and excluding the 4 course credits of seminar).

4. Students who have completed any required courses (and at least get 70 grade points) before enrolment may submit application to the Academic Committee for course waivers approval. And the students do not have to take the waived courses after the approval is granted.

5. The credits of graduate courses (codes starting with M) completed in college can be contained in the credits needed for graduation, but are limited to 9.

6. The minimum passing grade points for each course are 70.

7. Every student needs to choose at least one course offered by the Department. The Institute may reject the enrollments of those who intend to circumvent this requirement.

8. The master's thesis (6 credits) should be conducted during the semester when the application for the master's degree defense is submitted. For the information about how to write a thesis, please refer to the Academic Writing Education Center, NTU（http://www.awec.ntu.edu.tw/）or choose the courses on "Elementary Technology English Writing" and "Advanced Technology English Writing

9. Students whose major in college is not atmospheric sciences (or atmospheric physics) need to take the 2 credits of "introduction to atmospheric sciences".

10.  If graduate students studying for their master degrees want to directly take courses of which the code starts with D without completing the related prior courses, he/she should receive the instructor's approval beforehand.

1. The students of the Department should complete a minimum of 128 credits, including 12 credits of common courses required by the Minister of Education, 18 General Education courses, 74 credits of courses required by the Department, 24 credits of elective courses (including 6 credits of elective courses offered by the Department, but it is not necessary for the double majors who are not students of the Department to take these 6 credits of courses; and other elective courses not limited to those offered by College of Science and College of Engineering). The excess of credits of General Education courses (more than 18 credits) may account for a part of the 128 credits. The excess of credits of commonly required courses (more than 12 credits) are regarded as elective credits, but limited to 4 credits.

2. Secondary Courses Required by the Department and Related Regulations

Notes:
A. A. Students must pass the related prior courses, and then take the compulsory courses required by the Department.
B. B. Students who want to take the compulsory courses without passing the related prior courses must meet the following requirements:
  (1)Whose GPA should be in the top 20% of the class and approved by the Academic Committee, or(2)Agreed by the instructors of the compulsory courses.
C. Applied mathematics I, synoptic meteorology I, Lab. of synoptic meteorology I, and atmospheric dynamics I are required in order to take applied mathematics II, synoptic meteorology II, Lab. of synoptic meteorology II, and atmospheric dynamics II respectively.
D. Synoptic meteorology is required in order to take Lab. of synoptic meteorology.

3. Maximum and minimum credits per semester:
   Students should take 16-25 credits per semester for the first, second, and third year, and 9-25 credits for the fourth year. Undergraduates whose semester average point is higher 80 can take one or two more courses the next semester after approved by their instructors and Department Head.

4. The other relevant regulations are the same as those in the Academic Affairs Charter of the University.

5. To encourage learning, the College of Science established the "Dean Award" in the second semester of 1997. The graduate students whose total grade points of the "core courses" required by the Department are in the top 10% will be granted the Dean Award. The core courses are the required courses offered by the Department plus the elective courses required by the Department. In addition, students graduating early are also can be the candidates for the award.