Overview

The Doctoral Program in Industrial Management is a two to seven-year program offered by the Department of Industrial Management (DIM) of the NTUST School of Management that qualifies students for careers in academia or in business internationally. Four main research areas are offered, i.e. Production Management, Operations Research, Human Factors, and Information Technology.
 
A master's degree in a relevant area is a mandatory admission requirement for the DIM doctoral program. Fast-track PhD-programs that allow the admission of Bachelor Degree holders ("Direct Pursuit of the PhD") are currently not offered by the DIM. Our doctoral program requires coursework (30 credits), and a Qualifying Exam has to be passed within the first three years of enrollment in the program. Although courses need to be attended, our PhD education can be characterized as an individual doctorate, i.e. research and the writing of a dissertation under the supervision of one professor.
The DIM encourages all PhD students to attend domestic and international academic conferences to become familiar with the academic career environment at an early stage. Students are required to publish at least two papers in a relevant scientific journal during their PhD studies.

Furthermore, doctoral students at the DIM may obtain a Certificate of Concentration in the areas Systems Engineering, Human Factor Engineering and Data Science as a proof of their expertise in an area of Industrial Management . 
DIM doctoral students will have access to the resources offered by the NTU Triangle Alliance universities, National Taiwan University and National Taiwan Normal University. International students can apply for financial support through scholarships (full or partial) from various sources, prior to their arrival in Taiwan or after.

Graduation requirements

Program Structure

The program requires 30 credits of course work. Students have to complete four courses (i.e. 12 credits) in core areas of Industrial Management which can be chosen out of the following nine courses:

• Production Management Systems
• Mathematical Programming
• Applied Probability Models
• Psychological Foundations of Human Factors Engineering
• Psychological Foundations of Human Factors
• Experimental Design
• Project Management
• Supply Chain Management
• Concepts and Methods in Quality Control

 Another 18 credits can be earned through free electives, i.e. graduate-level courses offered by other Taiwan Tech departments or courses offered by the NTU Triangle universities. Furthermore, a seminar on Research Ethics (see below; 0 credit ) and two Seminars on Industrial Management (0 credit)  have to be completed within the first year after enrollment.  A "Seminar on Industrial Management" is a semester-long, small-group research colloquium where current issues of the field are explored in depth, and where experts from the field will be invited to give lectures. 

Certificate of Concentration
DIM Graduate students are offered the opportunity to obtain a Certificate of Concentration in the areas Systems Engineering, Human Factor Engineering or Data Science if they fulfil certain requirements detailed in the Certificate of Engineering Concentration Regulations and Application Form

Further regulations
All doctoral students must have taken at least one course in the area of Production Management in their Bachelor's or Master's programs, i.e. the courses titled  "Production Management", "Operations Management", "Production and Operations Management" (or equivalents).  If this is not the case, they will be required to take the course "Production Management System" [IM6307] before graduation. Furthermore, a Study Plan with all the courses, that the student has taken or is planning to take, needs to be submitted to the DIM office by the end of the first semester. 

Academic Research Ethics Seminar

As a requirement by the Taiwan Ministry of Education, all graduate students enrolled at universities in Taiwan have to complete seminars in Academic Research Ethics (ARE) which usually consist of three teaching units, where the first two units are lectures, while the last unit is a test. All Taiwan Tech PhD-students are required to attend at least one research ethics seminar before the end of the first year of studies, and to pass the ARE-exam. 

ARE seminars are not credit-bearing, but will appear in academic transcripts as PASSED with a passing grade of 70%. A successfully completed ARE seminar is a requirement for taking the degree examination of the MBA program.
Every semester, the Taiwan Tech Centre of General Education offers eight or more ARE seminars which are taught by different instructors and focus on different aspects. The schedule and topics of ARE seminars will be announced here.

Credit Transfer
General NTUST regulations for credit transfer apply. PhD students, who would like to transfer credits from courses at Taiwan Tech or other institutions prior to enrollment in the DIM doctoral program, will have to apply for credit transfer during the first semester of the doctoral program. In general, transferred credits may not exceed one-half of the minimum credit requirements for graduation (exceptions apply for dual degree programs). The application for credit transfer will be reviewed by the department’s academic program committee, with approval being granted at the department’s discretion.Please note that credits from EMBA courses cannot be transferred to the PhD-program. For detailed information on credit transfer, please refer to the following documents.
Download: NTUST regulations for credit transfer
Download: DIM Guidelines for Transfer of Academic Credits PhD Program 
 
Advisors

Advisors are responsible for monitoring the performance and progress of their students throughout their doctoral studies, they will guide their research work, and supervise the thesis-writing process. While the DIM chairperson has overall responsibility the doctoral students at DIM, students have to choose their thesis advisor within one month after enrollment into the PhD program. The advisor has to be a full-time member of the DIM faculty (Assistant Professor level or above). If required by the field of research, students may wish to choose a co-advisor from the DIM or from another Taiwan Tech department (full-time or adjunct faculty), or from another institution (another university in Taiwan or abroad, or a research institution (like Academia Sinica). The Dissertation Advisor Consent Form with the advisor's signature and the DIM stamp has to be submitted to the DIM office. If  thesis advisors want to terminate the supervision of a student, they have to inform the DIM office as soon as possible. The student will be officially notified and offered assistance with finding a new advisor (the application procedures for the new advisor are the same as described above )
Students who wish to change advisors need to report to the DIM office so that their previous advisor will be informed about their decision. Students have to register their new advisor at the department subsequently.
Relevant application forms can be found under Forms and Links. 

Qualifying Examination

Dissertation

Students will usually start working on their thesis in the second year of the program. Starting from the spring term 2023, all graduate students are required to submit a "Postgraduate Thesis and Academic Discipline Conformity Verification" in the early stages of the writing process, i.e. usually when they hand in the proposal for their dissertation. By signing this form, the advisor confirms that the topic and content of the student's dissertation is aligned with the DIM's field of expertise. Students have to hand in a first draft of their thesis before the Doctoral Degree Oral Examination ("Defense"). After the defense, they will have several weeks to revise their dissertation following the suggestions of the Defense Committee, before it will be finally submitted as e-copy and hard-copies in the beginning of the following semester.

Download: Form Postgraduate Thesis and Academic Discipline Conformity Verification 

Journal Publications/Conference Presentation   

As an application requirement for the Final Oral Examination ("Defense"), doctoral students have to co-publish at least two journal papers with their advisors and present a paper at an international conference. For the journal publications, the following conditions apply:

1) The papers have to be published/ accepted for publication  in an SCI or SSCI journal
2) The papers have to be published under NTUST institutional affiliation, i.e. students have to be enrolled in the DIM PhD program at the time of publication /acceptance of the paper.
3) The paper has to be a joint publication by the doctoral students and their advsiors; the first author and the second author can be the student or their dissertation (co)-advisor (including retired members of DIM faculty) in any order. 
4) The topic of at least one of the joint publications must be part of the research results of the dissertation.

Furthermore, doctoral students are required to present at least one paper on their research results at an international conference before graduation. If a major international conference in the field is held in Taiwan, the DIM Degree Evaluation Committee will make a decision on whether the conference will be accepted. Students should consult their advisors on relevant international conferences in their field, and, if the conference is held domestically, ask for approval by the DIM Degree Evaluation Committee before applying to the conference.   

Defense (Oral Degree Examination) 

The defense is an important exam at the end of the doctoral program the organization of which involves several administrative levels. Thus, preparations of the defense have to start at least four weeks before the planned defense date. The defense can only be held during the term, i.e. during the winter semester (between 1 October to 31 January) or during the spring semester (between 1 April to 31 July). Students, who fail to pass their thesis defense examination and who have not exceeded their maximum period of study, may apply to take a second examination in the following semester or academic year. Students, who fail to pass their defense examination a second time, will have to withdraw from the university.
After a successful defense, students have to revise their dissertation according to the feedback given by the committee members. The deadline for submitting the final version of the dissertation (both paper and digital copies) is in the beginning of the following term/ academic year as marked in the NTUST academic calendar. One printed copy has to be submitted to the NTUST library, and one to the DIM department (to be forwarded to the National Central Library). As a rule, all NTUST postgraduate thesis have to be published. Under special circumstances (such as pending patent applications or publications), the student can apply for a delay of publication (“Embargo of Thesis/Dissertation”) with the NTUST Library. The application, including supporting documents, needs to be approved by the thesis advisor.
Finally, students will have to complete the “School Leaving Procedures” to obtain the doctoral degree certificate.
All procedures, from the application for the defense to the school leaving procedures, are explained in detail in the information sheet "Doctoral Degree Oral Exam (“Defense”)". Please read through it carefully. All forms that the DIM requires you to be filled out can be downloaded here.

Download: Infosheet DIM  Doctoral Degree Oral Examination (“Defense”)
Download: DIM Doctoral Regulations for PhD Program 

Last update: 13 July 2023