Tbilisi State University or TSU is a public research university established on 8 February 1918 in Tbilisi, Georgia. Excluding academies and theological seminaries, which have intermittently functioned in Georgia for centuries.

TSU is the oldest university in Georgia and the Caucasus region. Over 23 500 students are enrolled and the total number of faculty and staff (collaborators) is 5,000. According to the U.S. News & World Report university rankings, TSU is ranked 398th in the world, tied with the University of Warsaw.^[3]

The university has five branches in the regions of Georgia, six faculties, 60 scientific-research laboratories and centers, a scientific library (with 3,700,000 books and periodicals), seven museums, publishing house and printing press (newspaper Tbilisis Universiteti).

The main founder of the university was a Georgian historian and academician, Ivane Javakhishvili. Among the co-founders were also several scientists, including Giorgi Akhvlediani, Shalva Nutsubidze, Dimitri Uznadze, Grigol Tsereteli, Akaki Shanidze, Andrea Razmadze, Korneli Kekelidze, Ioseb Kipshidze, Petre Melikishvili and Ekvtime Takaishvili. Professor Petre Melikishvili, a Georgian chemist, became the first rector of TSU.

The Rector of TSU since September 2016 has been Giorgi Sharvashidze. TSU has six 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.