The University of Tartu (UT) was established in 1632 and is one of the oldest and largest universities in Eastern Europe. According to the QS World University Rankings 2019 and Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings 2019, UT ranks among 350 world's best universities. UT has approximately 13,000 students, about a quarter of all students in Estonia, and its staff of about 3,600 makes it one of Estonia’s most important employers. The share of doctoral students is about 10% in 33 doctoral study programmes which provide more than a half of all Estonia's doctoral defences. Accordingly, UT is producing more than a half of all academic/research publications in the country.
Tartu Observatory (TO) is an institute of UT. TO was established as an independent research institute in 1947 and merged to UT since 1st January 2018. TO is the leading centre of space research and technology in Estonia.
