The University of Tartu (UT) prides itself on being Estonia’s premier institution of higher learning. Established in 1632, it is the oldest and largest university in Estonia both in terms of numbers of staff and students, as well as in terms of the volume of its teaching, research and development activities. UT alone accounts for more than a half of all the doctoral degrees conferred (118 in 2021) and research publications (close to 2,000 high-level publications published in 2021 according to the Estonian Research Information System), and national R&D financing in Estonia.
Being the country’s only classical university, UT embraces a wide variety of academic fields ranging from medicine and genetics to philosophy, literature and computer science. Cutting-edge research is conducted by more than 1,000 researchers working in 31 institutes across the University’s four faculties: the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, Faculty of Social Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, and Faculty of Science and Technology.
In its research and development efforts, UT focuses on five main areas: entrepreneurial and socially responsible society; healthy and active long-lived people; resources and technologies for environmentally friendly economic growth; information and communication technology for developing an innovative society; and the sustainability of the Estonian language and culture in an open world. Currently, UT ranks in the top 1% of the world’s most highly-cited research institutions in 14 fields of research and 67 of its researchers are among the 1% most cited researchers in the world (according to the Web of Science citation database).
As a member of several high-level research university networks such as The Guild of European Research-Intensive Universities, the Coimbra Group, the Europaeum, and an associate member of the League of European Research Universities (LERU), UT actively participates in the formulation of European research and higher education policies.