Before the Tzu Chi Hospital had even opened, Master Cheng Yen already planned to set up colleges of nursing and medicine to produce medical specialists for the hospital, since it was difficult to attract doctors and nurses to Eastern Taiwan.
After the hospital was opened, she actively began to make preparations. With support from all sides and through the Master's own hard work, the Tzu Chi Junior College of Nursing was opened on September 1 7, 1989, and the Tzu Chi College of Medicine on October 16, 1994. These events wrote new pages in the history of Tzu Chi education.
