CGU Enews

Congratulations to Dr. Wan-ling Hsieh on Successful Completion of Her Doctoral Studies
　

The Office of Academic Affairs would like to extend warm congratulations to Dr. Wan-ling Hsieh on her successful completion of doctoral studies. Dr. Hsieh is the first student attending Chang Gung University that was admitted directly into a Ph.D. program with only a bachelor’s degree. The Office of Academic Affairs would like to take this opportunity to encourage all elite students to follow Dr. Hsieh’s example and submit their applications for direct entry into CGU’s doctoral programs.

Dr. Hsieh was admitted into the bachelor’s program of the Department of Life Science (later re-named as the Department of Biomedical Sciences) in September 2006. In the fourth year of her undergraduate studies, she made an application for direct entry to the Ph.D. program of the Graduate Institute of Biomedical Sciences. As a result of her stellar academic performance and the unanimous recommendation from the department’s faculty members, she was successfully admitted into the Ph.D. program. She completed most of the doctoral coursework during the fourth year of her undergraduate studies; hence, she could commit herself to research work and writing up academic papers. Under the supervision and guidance of Prof. Jong-Hwei Su Pang, she published two papers in the Journal Dermatological Science 67（SCI 3.335） and the Cell Proliferation（SCI 3.28） in 2012 and 2014 respectively. This year, she successfully passed the oral defense of her dissertation titled “Regulation of EGF-activated CDC25B and IFI27 in Epidermal Keratinocytes and the Potential to Be an Anti-psoriatic Target” and accordingly obtained her doctorate. It was such a spectacular achievement of Dr. Hsieh to choose this direct route to complete both bachelor’s degree and doctorate within a mere eight years.

Chang Gung University first introduced the guidelines for direct entry to a Ph.D. program from a bachelor’s degree in 2006. The guidelines were amended in 2014 to allow exceptional bachelor’s and master’s students to accelerate their higher education. According to the guidelines, students who meet the following academic requirements are eligible to apply for direct admission.

1. Students who are in the final year of their bachelor’s studies demonstrate the capacity of independent research as well as achieve brilliant academic results in their coursework.
2. Master’s students demonstrate the capacity of independent research as well as achieve brilliant academic results in their coursework.

In addition, applicants must include two supporting letters of recommendation attesting to the applicant’s research potential. Application should be submitted before the 30th of June every year to the Office of Academic Affairs, which will then be presented to the CGU President for final decision.

Current undergraduate students and master’s students who wish to proceed to a doctoral program may follow the example set by Dr. Hsieh. This fast-track path to a doctoral degree has been proven a route to save students both time and educational costs. For more information about direct entry into doctoral programs, please refer to the following link: http://academic.cgu.edu.tw/ezfiles/1/1001/img/24/25588558.pdf