Year of foundation: 1632
Period of study: Early September-Early February; Mid February-End June
Approx. number of students: 14,000
MCI partner since: 2018
The City
Tartu is the second largest city of Estonia, after Estonia's political and financial capital Tallinn. It is often considered the intellectual centre of the country and it also houses the Supreme Court of Estonia, the Ministry of Education and Research, and the new building of the Estonian National Museum.
Mostly known as a university town, Tartu is also a site of heavy industry. The food industry has traditionally been important for the town's economy. In the beginning of the 21st century, many ICT enterprises and other high-tech companies have also taken a foothold in Tartu.
The University
The University of Tartu is the national university of Estonia. It was established by King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden in 1632. There are nearly 14,000 students at the university, of which over 1,300 are foreign students. The QS World University Rankings ranked the University of Tartu 347th in the world in 2016, and the top-ranked university in the Baltics. It belongs to top 1% of world's most cited universities in 10 research areas.
The historical buildings of the university are included in the European Heritage Label list as "embodiment of the ideas of a university in the Age of Enlightenment".