Tbilisi State University

Tbilisi State University

Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University (Georgian: ივანე ჯავახიშვილის სახელობის თბილისის სახელმწიფო უნივერსიტეტი Ivane Javaxishvilis saxelobis Tbilisis saxelmts'ipo universit'et'i), better known as Tbilisi State University (TSU), is a university established on 8 February 1918 in Tbilisi, Georgia. TSU is the oldest university in the whole Caucasus region. Over 18,000 students are enrolled and the total number of faculty and staff (collaborators) is approximately 5,000.

The University has five branches in different regions of Georgia, 6 faculties, approximately 60 scientific-research laboratories and centers, a scientific library (with more than 3,700,000 books and periodicals), 7 museums, publishing house and printing press (newspaper "Tbilisis Universiteti").

Tbilisi University has close contacts with many foreign scientific and educational centres, these are the University of Saarland and Jena University (Germany), Emory University and Georgia State University (USA), Saint Mary's University (Canada), Warsaw University and University of Łódź (Poland), University of Málaga and University of Salamanca (Spain), Nantes, Paris 8, Paris 13, Grenoble and Toulon Universities (France), Bristol Polytechnical Institute, Brunel and London Universities (Great Britain), Budapest Eötvös Loránd University (Hungary), Bilkent, Trabzon Black Sea and Ankara Universities (Turkey), Palermo, Rome and Sapienza, Piza and Venice Universities (Italy), Athens, Pirueus, Ioanina and Saloniki Universities (Greece), International Centre of Nuclear Physics, Aarhus University (Denmark), Bucharest University (Romania), University of Vienna (Austria), Tehran and Gilan Universities (Iran), Cairo University (Egypt). TSU has relations with Association of European Universities, UNESCO, the Council of Europe and other international organizations.

The main founder of the University was a well-known Georgian historian and academician, Ivane Javakhishvili. Several noted scientists - Giorgi Akhvlediani, Shalva Nutsubidze, Dimitri Uznadze, Grigol Tsereteli, Akaki Shanidze, Andria Razmadze, Ioseb Kipshidze, Petre Melikishvili and Ekvtime Takaishvili were also co-founders. Professor Petre Melikishvili, a well-known Georgian chemist, was chosen the first rector of TSU.

The Rector of TSU since August 2010 is Aleksandre Kvitashvili.

Nowadays, TSU includes 6 faculties: Law, Economics and Business, Humanities, Medicine, Social and Political Sciences, Exact and Natural Sciences and the International School of Economics at Tbilisi State University as an autonomous graduate school of economics.