The Abkhazian State University is the only university in Georgia's breakaway republic of Abkhazia. It was founded in 1979 on the basis of the Sukhumi Pedagogical Institute. Its first rector was Zurab Anchabadze.
The university consists the departments of physics and mathematics, biology and geography, history, philology, economics, law; pedagogical and agro-engineering departments.
The first college in Abkhazia, Sukhumi Agro-pedagogical Institute was founded in 1932 and transformed into Maxim Gorky Pedagogical Institute next year. Following the rallies and street demonstrations in 1978 it was transformed into Abkhazian State University with Abkhaz, Georgian and Russian sectors. In 1989 Georgian students demanded that the Georgian sector be transformed into a branch of the Tbilisi State University. This was opposed by the Abkhaz and eventually led to the clashes in the city.
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