Admission

The following information relates to the application process of foreign applicants. For information relevant to application requirements for Taiwanese (R.O.C) nationals and overseas Chinese students (僑生), please refer to the department’s Mandarin website.

General guidelines

Applications for the department’s graduate and undergraduate programs in Religious Studies are open to lay people and monastics alike. International students are not required to take an entrance examination. The selection process for international applicants will be based on the submitted application alone. Applicants should maintain at least grade B or 75% in their average academic performance as well as in major courses. Furthermore, applicants must be able to understand, speak, read, and write Mandarin.

Bachelor’s Degree

For a detailed account of the admission guidelines, the list of required documents and application forms, please refer to the website.

Master’s Degree

International applicants must hold an equivalent of a bachelor’s degree from institutions of recognized standing by the Ministry of Education of the Republic of China (Taiwan). For a detailed account of the admission guidelines, the list of required documents and application forms, please refer to the website.

Doctoral Degree

International applicants must hold an equivalent of a master’s degree from institutions of recognized standing by the Ministry of Education of the Republic of China (Taiwan). For a detailed account of the admission guidelines, the list of required documents and application forms, please refer to the website.

*remark: Regarding Mandarin language proficiency, oral comprehension and expression are most important as Mandarin is both the language of instruction and the main language of communication between students. Comparatively, written expression is less crucial as most professors will accept papers in English and one’s thesis can also be written in English. Beyond the need for decent reading comprehension skills for the regular email exchanges with students, faculty and the administration, the importance of reading comprehension will depend on the amount of Chinese scholarship one intends to use in one’s personal research, as most classes will typically make extensive use of Western scholarship written in English. On the same token, the Institute’s Library & Information Center houses a vast collection of literature related to Buddhist studies in both Western languages and Mandarin. For information on learning Mandarin in Taiwan, please refer to this page.