Degree Conferral Act (Taiwan)-2018
People`s Republic of China
Last amended: Amended on November 28, 2018
Article 1
Degrees shall be conferred in accordance with the provisions of this Act.
Article 2
The “competent authority” in this Act is the Ministry of Education.
Article 3
Degrees are divided into four different levels: associate degrees, bachelor’s degree, master’s degree, and doctoral degrees. Associate degree are conferred by junior colleges and may also be conferred by universities. Bachelor’s degrees, master’s degrees, and doctoral degrees are conferred by universities.
The name of each of the degrees in different categories at each level referred to in the preceding paragraph will be determined by the conferring junior college or university based on the academic field, the program undertaken, and the requirements. The regulations governing each degree’s name, the criteria for conferral, and the awarding and registration of the associated degree diploma shall be implemented after being adopted by each junior college or university at an institution level academic affairs meeting, and details reported to the competent authority for future reference.
The regulations governing the procedures for determining the name of each of the degrees in different categories at each level, the criteria for their conferral referred to in the preceding paragraph, and other related matters shall be prescribed by the competent authority.
Article 4
An associate degree shall be conferred on any student of a junior college or university who undertakes and completes an associate degree program within the legally prescribed period, completes the required course credits, and completes any required internship within the legally prescribed number of years, and satisfies all the graduation requirements, and who has passed examination and assessment with satisfactory results.
Article 5
A university student who undertakes and completes a bachelor’s degree program within the legally prescribed time, completes the required course credits, and completes any required internship within the legally prescribed number of years, and satisfies all the graduation requirements, and who has passed examination and assessment with satisfactory results shall be conferred a bachelor’s degree.
If a student undertakes courses in a similar academic field or undertakes courses in an interdisciplinary degree program and satisfies the requirements set out in the preceding paragraph, a university may award the student a bachelor’s degree on the basis of the student’s academic field(s), courses taken, and requirements met, without being bound by the regulations of the college, department, or degree program that the student was originally admitted into governing subjects and courses. This does not, however, apply to specialist fields which are subject to supervisory mechanisms formulated by government agencies that stipulate the total number of personnel to be trained.
The criteria for determining the similar academic fields referred to in the preceding paragraph shall be determined at a college academic affairs meeting or by a degree program affairs committee of the college conferring the degree.
A student enrolled in a four-year industry-academia cooperative professional bachelor’s degree program that has been approved by the competent authority, who has completed two years of study and earned eighty course credits, passed examination and assessment with satisfactory results, and applies to the university where they are studying and receives approval to retain their student status, and then begins working shall be awarded an associate degree.
A bachelor’s degree shall be awarded to a student who applied to have their student status retained as referred to in the preceding paragraph, who resumes their studies at the university within the prescribed time limit and satisfies the provisions of Paragraph 1.
Article 6
A National Open University student who undertakes an associate degree, a bachelor’s degree, or a master’s degree program who in accordance with the provisions of the National Open University Establishment Act completes the required number of course credits, satisfies the graduation requirements, has passed examination and assessment with satisfactory results, and satisfies the criteria for conferral of a degree set out in this Act shall be conferred the appropriate corresponding associate degree, bachelor’s degree, or master’s degree, as appropriate.
Article 7
A student in a university master’s degree program who completes a master’s degree program within the legally prescribed period, completes the required course credits, satisfies the graduation requirements and submits a thesis, and who passes examination conducted by a master’s degree examination committee shall be conferred a master’s degree.
Students undertaking a master’s degree program in a fine arts, applied science or technology, or sports field may submit a work, proof of achievement accompanied by a written report, or a technical report instead of a master’s degree thesis. The criteria to be used for determining fields to which this applies shall be implemented by each university after being approved at a university level academic affairs meeting.
Students undertaking a professional practice master’s degree program may submit a professional practice report instead of a thesis. The criteria for determining professional practice areas to which this applies shall be implemented by each university after being approved at a university level academic affairs meeting.
The regulations governing the scope of such determinations, the form of materials, content items, and other related matters pertaining to each suitable field referred to in the preceding two paragraphs for which a work, proof of achievement accompanied by a written report, a technical report, or professional practice report may be submitted instead of a thesis shall be prescribed by the competent authority.
Article 8
A master’s degree examination committee shall have three to five members, selected and appointed by the university president.
The committee members referred to in the preceding paragraph shall each have done specialized study in the research field of the student who has undertaken the master’s degree program and also have one of the following qualifications:
1. Be currently serving or have served as a professor, associate professor, or assistant professor;
2. Be an academician at Academia Sinica, or currently work or have worked at Academia Sinica as a research fellow, associate research fellow, or assistant research fellow;
3. Have a doctoral degree and have significant academic accomplishments;
4. Have expertise in an unusual or highly specialized academic research field or professional practice field and have achieved significant results in their respective academic or professional field(s).
The criteria for determining the qualifications referred to in Subparagraph 3 and Subparagraph 4 of the preceding paragraph shall be set at an academic affairs meeting of the department, graduate institute, or college affairs handling the conferral of the degree or at a degree program affairs committee meeting.
Article 9
A student enrolled in a doctoral program who meets the following requirements may become a doctoral candidate:
1) They have completed the required course credits.
2) They have passed the qualifying examination for doctoral candidates.
A doctoral candidate who completes their program within the legally prescribed period, has satisfied the graduation requirements and submitted a dissertation, and passed an examination conducted by a doctoral degree examination committee shall be awarded a doctoral degree.
Students undertaking a doctoral program in a fine arts, applied science or technology, or sports field may submit a work or proof of achievement accompanied by a written report, or a technical report instead of a doctoral dissertation. The criteria for determining whether this is applicable to a particular field shall be implemented by each university after being approved at a university level academic affairs meeting.
For each suitable field referred to in the preceding paragraph for which a work or proof of achievement accompanied by a written report, or technical report may be submitted instead of a doctoral dissertation, the regulations governing the scope of such determinations, the form of materials, content items, and other related matters shall be prescribed by the competent authority.
Article 10
A doctoral degree examination committee shall have five to nine members, selected and appointed by the university president.
The committee members referred to in the preceding paragraph shall each have done specialized research in the same research field as the doctoral candidate and have one of the following qualifications:
1. Be currently serving or have served as a professor, associate professor, or assistant professor;
2. Be an academician at Academia Sinica, or currently work or have worked at Academia Sinica as a research fellow or associate research fellow;
3. Have a doctoral degree and have significant academic accomplishments;
4. Have expertise in an unusual or highly specialized academic area and have achieved significant results in their respective academic or professional field(s).
The criteria for determining the qualifications referred to in Subparagraph 3 and Subparagraph 4 of the preceding paragraph shall be set set at an academic affairs meeting of the department, graduate institute, or college affairs handling the conferral of the degree or at a degree program affairs committee meeting.
Article 11
A master’s degree may be awarded to a student without a master’s degree who applied and was given approval to directly enroll in a doctoral program, who passed the qualifying examination for doctoral candidates in accordance with the provisions of Article 9, Paragraph 1 but subsequently did not pass the doctoral degree, if the doctoral degree examination committee decides that the student’s work in their dissertation, work(s), proof of achievement accompanied by a written report, or technical report meets the standard for a master’s degree.
Article 12
A thesis or dissertation, work, proof of achievement, written report, technical report, or professional practice report that has already been submitted to obtain a degree in Taiwan or abroad may not be submitted as the thesis or dissertation, work, proof of achievement, written report, technical report, or professional practice report referred to in Article 7, and in Paragraph 2 and Paragraph 3 of Article 9. This restriction does not apply, however, if a university in Taiwan has engaged in institutional collaboration with a university abroad and the two universities have jointly supervised the thesis or dissertation and the two universities have each separately conferred a corresponding degree.
Article 13
A student who undertakes an associate degree, a bachelor’s degree, master’s degree, or doctoral degree at a military or police academy, in accordance with the provisions of this Act and the related regulations of the military or police academy and completes the required number of course credits within the legally prescribed period, satisfies the graduation requirements, and has passed examination and assessment with satisfactory results, and who satisfies the criteria for conferral of a degree set out in this Act and in relevant education legislation shall be conferred the appropriate corresponding degree by that military or police academy.
Article 14
A student who undertakes a double major, within the same university or in two different universities, within the legally prescribed period, completes the required number of course credits, satisfies the graduation requirements, has passed examination and assessment with satisfactory results, and who meets the requirements set out in this Act for conferring all levels of degree shall be conferred a degree by the university in which the student originally enrolled, and the degree diploma that they are awarded will record the name of the university and the department in which the second major was completed.
A student undertaking an associate degree or a bachelor’s degree program may enroll in a minor subject (or department, graduate institute, or degree program) at the same level at the same junior college or university, or at the same level at a different junior college or university. A student undertaking a master’s or doctoral degree program may enroll in a minor subject (or department, graduate institute, or degree program) at the same level or at a lower level within the same university but the student will not be conferred a separate degree.
If the student referred to in Paragraph 1 who undertakes a double major within the same university or in two different universities is unable to complete the required course credits to complete the double major within the prescribed period, the student may arrange a credit offset to obtain a minor in a subject (department or degree program) instead and the student will not be conferred a separate degree.
Article 15
An honorary doctoral degree may be awarded to a person after an honorary doctoral degree review committee formed by a university which may confer a doctoral degree in the same discipline has approved such an award. The university shall implement the awarding of any honorary doctoral degree after the criteria for such awards, the formation of the review committee, and the review procedures have been approved at a university level academic affairs meeting.
Article 16
A person who obtains a doctoral or master’s degree shall give their university a copy of the thesis or dissertation, written report, technical report, or professional practice report which they submitted for the degree to send to the National Central Library and the university’s library for storage, as a document, videotape, cassette, disc or in some other form, and they shall also provide an electronic file version.
A copy of the dissertation, thesis, written report, technical report, or professional practice report stored by the National Central Library shall be made available to the public to read within the library in print form or by accessing electronic data files using independent equipment. If authority has been given in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright Act such stored items may be reproduced, publicly transmitted inside or outside the library using a network, or handled or used in other ways that are subject to copyright. If, however, the content involves confidential information, patent matters, or is not permitted to be provided on statutory grounds and this has been confirmed by the university, the person is permitted to not provide a copy or public access to the material in question will be placed under embargo for a certain period.
The library storage and public availability referred to in the preceding two paragraphs do not affect the copyright of any such dissertations, theses, written reports, technical reports, or professional practice reports.
Article 17
A degree conferred by a university or junior college shall be revoked under any of the following circumstances, and the university or junior college shall issue a public notice that the degree diploma that was awarded has been invalidated. If some other ordinance has been violated, the matter shall also be dealt with in accordance with the provisions of the applicable laws and regulations:
1) The student’s admission eligibility or course of studies involved dishonesty or fraud.
2) The thesis or dissertation, work(s), proof of achievement, written report, technical report, or professional practice report contains fabricated, altered, or plagiarized material, was written by someone else, or constitutes some other form of fraud.
If the competent authority of the university or junior college discovers that the handling of any matter referred to in the preceding paragraph by the university or junior college could possibly have been illegal or inappropriate, the competent authority shall notify the university to rectify the matter within a prescribed time period; if the university does not rectify the matter within the prescribed time period, the competent authority may issue an official reprimand.
If a university or junior college that has been issued an official reprimand by the competent authority does not then handle the illegal or improper matters referred to in Paragraph 1 adequately, the competent authority may invite scholars and experts, and representatives of the university or junior college to form a review committee to identify and advise on specific disciplinary action to be taken to address any violation that has occurred and the university shall handle the matter in accordance with the advice given. If the university or junior college fails to do so within a prescribed time period, the competent authority may issue an official reprimand and reduce the subsidies to the university or junior college and its enrollment quotas.
A university or junior college that revokes a degree in accordance with the provisions of Paragraph 1 shall then notify the person involved to return the degree diploma and it shall inform other junior colleges, universities, and relevant institutions (agencies) of the circumstances of the revocation and invalidation.
Article 18
Under any of the following circumstances, the offender or the person(s) responsible shall be subject to a fine of between NT$ 300,000 (three hundred thousand New Taiwan Dollars) and NT$ 1,000,000 (one million New Taiwan Dollars) as a penalty, and a separate fine may be imposed for each instance of a violation:
1. Using an advertisement, oral request, a broadcast, or some other means to attract or coerce another person to ghostwrite (or produce and present as done by the student) a dissertation or thesis, work(s), proof of achievement, written report, technical report, or professional practice report.
2. Actually ghostwriting (producing and presenting as done by the student), or providing plagiarized materials orally, or using photocopying or other deceptive measures to incorporate into a dissertation or thesis, work(s), proof of achievement, written report, technical report, or professional practice report.
The penalty fines referred to in the preceding paragraph will be imposed by the competent authority.
Article 19
The conferral of degrees on students who began undertaking an associate degree at a junior college, junior college division affiliated with a university, or supplementary advanced education school affiliated with a junior college or university, and students who began undertaking a bachelor’s degree at a university or the supplementary advanced education school affiliated with a university before the November 9, 2018 amendments to Article 4 and Paragraph 1 of Article 5 of this Act come into effect shall be handled in accordance with the former provisions.
Article 20
This Act shall take effect on the date of promulgation, with the exception of the amendments made to Article 4, and to Paragraph 1 of Article 5 promulgated on November 9, 2018, for which the date of effect will be prescribed by the Executive Yuan.
