Why it's hard to get anything done in Taiwan
Here are the formal instructions from National Chengchi University on printing a master’s thesis to meet graduation requirements. (“Print” is one of the university’s favorite words. It hasn’t come to terms with 2013.) I have amended the instructions to indicate what my department missed because it lacks a sense of customer service, can’t think for the end-user and remains cloistered in a Qing Dynasty-style mini-bureaucracy that prohibits reaching out to non-department people who might know more. The difference between the italicized original brief and my additions in bold font is everything that’s wrong with doing business in Taiwan.
1. Upload your e-thesis onto the NCCU library system (URL given in parentheses). Remember to add watermark (from the library page) and transfer into .pdf.
You must download the watermark separately, from a different library webpage. The library doesn’t care if it’s in the uploaded thesis. It owns the watermark and can add it in as it sees fit. The print shop, to be discussed later, does require the watermark, so download it and save as an electronic file. The library requires filling out an online form with a number of questions about you and the thesis before uploading the text.
2. You will receive a confirmation letter within 24 hours from the librarian. If the format is correct, then you may proceed to make hard copies. If not, the library will notify you where to amend and you just upload it again.
A call to the library eases the suspense of waiting for an incorrect-format notification. Library staff people on the call can help find the upload form on their intricate website and walk you through the questions. The "letter" is actually an e-mail.
3. Print out the authorization form from the system mentioned above and attach it to your thesis when you make hard copies.
Do not use the e-mail confirmation, although it's identical to the authorization form that must be downloaded and printed. “Attach” means print, sign, scan and submit electronically to the print shop with the thesis text. When it’s time for hard copies, any print shop that binds books can do the job. One of the university’s favorites operates on B-1 under the campus breakfast bar and another just outside the main gate.
4. The main library needs two hard-back copies, while the IMICS Office needs two copies (one soft bond, one hard bond).
IMICS, the acronym referring to my communications department, needs blue covers for both, something one learns from talking with staffers at the print shop, which processes piles of these things every year. The department also requires a formal cover page, which appears on its list of graduation requirements, a scan of the thesis committee’s signed approval, a secondary introduction page and an acknowledgements page. The department does not provide other templates, so to make sure it’s done right ask fellow students for theirs or check a previously published thesis. This front matter must be given to the print shop electronically along with files of the signed and scanned library form and the thesis text itself. If not, the print shop will ask whether you’re sure it’s all OK. Presumably the department will reject it, as well. The three professors on your thesis committee don’t require separate copies of the bound thesis, but it’s considered protocol to send a nice copy to each. Total printing bill for library, department, profs and your own files comes to about US$60.
5. Print out your NCCU departure clearance from your I-NCCU system (in the icon Campus Info System). Bring the departure clearance form and your theses to the IMICS Office. The Office coordinator will give you a stamp on your departure form and then you go to other departments listed on your clearance form. Finally go to registration section to collect your certificate.
Contents of the clearance form vary from student to student. The form’s two printed pages must be hand-carried around campus for stamps from departments that have left notes in the far right column. Anyone in IMICS can give that department’s stamp. Whoever’s on duty in the main library (not the communications branch or any other) can receive the two thesis copies and give a stamp. The Office of International Cooperation, for foreign students, must slap down a stamp authorizing cancellation of health insurance, if you had it, and the registration section must stamp to void your student ID card unless it’s lost, in which case you get another form. If you have any incomplete grades, the clearance form will prompt you to settle up with the relevant professor before getting the registration section’s stamp. At the end, registration produces the actual diploma that means you’re finally out of this rat hole.
6. Any questions regarding to uploading your thesis to the library system, please contact with the librarian Huang Chun-hui (ext. 63192)
This advice belongs under instruction No. 1. This extension is also not the only one for thesis uploaders, nor is Huang the only person who can offer phone help.
1. Upload your e-thesis onto the NCCU library system (URL given in parentheses). Remember to add watermark (from the library page) and transfer into .pdf.
You must download the watermark separately, from a different library webpage. The library doesn’t care if it’s in the uploaded thesis. It owns the watermark and can add it in as it sees fit. The print shop, to be discussed later, does require the watermark, so download it and save as an electronic file. The library requires filling out an online form with a number of questions about you and the thesis before uploading the text.
2. You will receive a confirmation letter within 24 hours from the librarian. If the format is correct, then you may proceed to make hard copies. If not, the library will notify you where to amend and you just upload it again.
A call to the library eases the suspense of waiting for an incorrect-format notification. Library staff people on the call can help find the upload form on their intricate website and walk you through the questions. The "letter" is actually an e-mail.
3. Print out the authorization form from the system mentioned above and attach it to your thesis when you make hard copies.
Do not use the e-mail confirmation, although it's identical to the authorization form that must be downloaded and printed. “Attach” means print, sign, scan and submit electronically to the print shop with the thesis text. When it’s time for hard copies, any print shop that binds books can do the job. One of the university’s favorites operates on B-1 under the campus breakfast bar and another just outside the main gate.
4. The main library needs two hard-back copies, while the IMICS Office needs two copies (one soft bond, one hard bond).
IMICS, the acronym referring to my communications department, needs blue covers for both, something one learns from talking with staffers at the print shop, which processes piles of these things every year. The department also requires a formal cover page, which appears on its list of graduation requirements, a scan of the thesis committee’s signed approval, a secondary introduction page and an acknowledgements page. The department does not provide other templates, so to make sure it’s done right ask fellow students for theirs or check a previously published thesis. This front matter must be given to the print shop electronically along with files of the signed and scanned library form and the thesis text itself. If not, the print shop will ask whether you’re sure it’s all OK. Presumably the department will reject it, as well. The three professors on your thesis committee don’t require separate copies of the bound thesis, but it’s considered protocol to send a nice copy to each. Total printing bill for library, department, profs and your own files comes to about US$60.
5. Print out your NCCU departure clearance from your I-NCCU system (in the icon Campus Info System). Bring the departure clearance form and your theses to the IMICS Office. The Office coordinator will give you a stamp on your departure form and then you go to other departments listed on your clearance form. Finally go to registration section to collect your certificate.
Contents of the clearance form vary from student to student. The form’s two printed pages must be hand-carried around campus for stamps from departments that have left notes in the far right column. Anyone in IMICS can give that department’s stamp. Whoever’s on duty in the main library (not the communications branch or any other) can receive the two thesis copies and give a stamp. The Office of International Cooperation, for foreign students, must slap down a stamp authorizing cancellation of health insurance, if you had it, and the registration section must stamp to void your student ID card unless it’s lost, in which case you get another form. If you have any incomplete grades, the clearance form will prompt you to settle up with the relevant professor before getting the registration section’s stamp. At the end, registration produces the actual diploma that means you’re finally out of this rat hole.
6. Any questions regarding to uploading your thesis to the library system, please contact with the librarian Huang Chun-hui (ext. 63192)
This advice belongs under instruction No. 1. This extension is also not the only one for thesis uploaders, nor is Huang the only person who can offer phone help.