Angeles University Foundation (AUF), located in Angeles City, Central Luzon, is a private, non-stock, non-profit Roman Catholic educational institution. It was founded on May 25, 1962 by Agustin P. Angeles, Barbara Y. Angeles, and family, and was granted university status by the Philippine Department of Education on April 16, 1971. In 1975, the founding family executed a Deed of Donation relinquishing ownership, converting the institution into a tax-exempt foundation under Philippine law. AUF became a Catholic university on February 14, 1978 — the first Catholic university in Central Luzon, according to the university. It operates the AUF Medical Center, a private teaching and research hospital inaugurated in 1990. According to the university, AUF has held autonomous status granted by the Philippine Commission on Higher Education (CHED) since 2003, a distinction held, it says, by fewer than 70 of the country’s approximately 2,400 higher education institutions. In October 2009, AUF established the Confucius Institute at Angeles University Foundation (CI-AUF) in partnership with Fujian Normal University (福建師範大學), with a formal opening in January 2010 attended by then-Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, then-Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Liu Jianchao (劉建超), and then-Hanban (漢辦) Director General Xu Lin (許琳).