To ensure that the quality standards of the School are met in terms of research, and to meet its mission goal of contributing new accounting and finance knowledge, the School has strict admissions policies for its doctoral program. There are five ways to apply for the doctoral degree program at SOA. In order to attract outstanding PhD candidates, the School adopted various approaches to test the background, capabilities, and research potential of the applicants. The “Apply and Evaluate” mechanism and “National PhD Graduate School Entrance Examination” are two main ways to recruit students.

(1) The “Apply and Evaluate” mechanism, in which the applicants must have master degrees from “211” or “985” project universities, and their major should rank top 20 according to the Ministry of Education discipline evaluation, also applicants must show high potential in academic research, which would exempt them from the entrance examination.

(2) The National PhD Graduate School Entrance Examination, in which applicants must go through a written examination and interview. The School prefers students in the first four streams, who demonstrate strong academic research achievement or the potential to do excellent research. The School has strict criteria for the selection of applicants. For example, they need to have completed the master degree course credit requirements, their weighted average grade for basic courses must be at least 75%, they must show a strong spirit of innovation, and they must demonstrate research capacity and good potential for doctoral study. The related admissions policies are published and updated annually by the School and the University.