Tbilisi State University: Oldest university in the Caucasus

This week Georgia is celebrating the foundation day of Tbilisi State University – the oldest university in the Caucasus region.

The educational facility, formally named Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University (TSU), was established on February 8, 1918 by well-known Georgian historian and academic Ivane Javakhishvili.

To mark the occasion Georgia’s President and Prime Minister issued special statements where they mentioned the importance of TSU in Georgia.

"97 years ago on the memorial day of David the Builder [Georgia’s most powerful King from the 11th Century], our great scientists established a European-type of school for higher education, where merging of national and European values and serving universal ideals became possible,” read the statement of PM Irakli Garibashvili.

"That is why for decades the University has been the most important centre of education, Georgian science and culture for our country.”

The officials also stressed the importance for TSU to "meet all modern requirements as well as to maintain and carry out its function of a major educational centre”.

TSU has five branches in different regions of Georgia, six faculties, approximately 60 scientific-research laboratories and centres, a scientific library containing more than 3.7 million books and periodicals, seven museums, a publishing house and printing press.

See the full list of TSU faculties below:

• Law;
• Economics and Business;
• Humanities;
• Medicine;
• Social and Political Sciences;
• Exact and Natural Sciences; and
• The International School of Economics