Hsuan Chuang University (HCU; ) is a private Buddhist university in Xiangshan District, Hsinchu City, Taiwan. Founded in 1997 by the Ven. Liao Zhong (了中; ) and named for the Tang dynasty monk Xuanzang, the school was promoted to university status in 1993. It offers bachelor's and master's degrees, mainly in humanities subjects. History Before 1985, the government of Taiwan maintained strict controls on private universities and, in particular, discouraged university-level religious education. For several decades, senior officials of the Buddhist Association of the Republic of China (BAROC) pressured the government to overturn these restrictions and allow a private Buddhist university similar to the Fu Jen Catholic University. Informal resistance from the Ministry of Education persisted into the 1990s. One obstacle was that the Ministry of Education claimed that as a religious affair, jurisdiction over the proposal lay with the Ministry of the Interior—which, in turn, maintained that as an educational institution, responsibility lay with the Ministry of Education. Before 1990, the working group had reconciled itself to creating a technical college (which could be accredited) alongside an unaccredited seminary, in preparation for a time when the government might accredit it as a religious studies department. The political thaw and economic boom of the 1980s and 1990s erased many of the obstacles facing the venture. However, these events also had the effect of encouraging charismatic Buddhist teachers to build their own organizations and institutions—including universities—separately from BAROC. Examples included Tzu Chi University, Fo Guang University, Huafan University, Nanhua University, and Dharma Drum Buddhist College). The "rump" project was led by Liao Zhong, a monk and BAROC official who would ultimately chair Hsuan Chuang's board of directors. Hsinchu was chosen as the school's location for its proximity to the Buddhist teachers resident in north Taiwan and for its cheap land prices relative to Taipei. Government approval for the location was another significant hurdle in the application process. The school is in a semi-agricultural area on the outskirts of Hsinchu, next to Yuanpei University of Medical Technology and down the road from Chung Hua University. The prospect of a merger between these schools is regularly broached. In 2008, the school was reevaluated by Taiwan's Ministry of Education, as a result of which one-third of its departments were placed on probation. Underlying this development is demographic pressure resulting from a dearth of university-age young people and a corresponding glut of colleges and universities