University of Turku, Finland, is the second largest university of the country, right after the university of Helsinki. It was founded in 1640 by Christina, the queen of Sweden.
The University of Turku (titled then Academia Aboensis) was transferred to Helsinki in 1828, after the Great Fire of Turku, but the coastal city of Turku gained the status of an university city again in 1917, after a huge private campaign.
Nowadays the university has six faculties: Faculty of Humanities (found 1920), Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences (1922), Faculty of Medicine (1943), Faculty of Law (1960), Faculty of Social Sciences (1967) and Faculty of Education (1974). In addition to them, the University of Turku hosts 10 special units and 14 graduate schools.
The number of students exceeds 17 000, with over 1800 new students signing in each year. Total number of staff exceeds 2500.
The University of Turku is a member of Coimra Group, a network of prestigious universities in Europe. Also the University of Turku has been noted in the list of world's top universities, ranking second highest among the universities of Finland.
The main strenghts of the research and teaching of University of Turku are following (according to the University's webpages):
- biosciences
- cultural interaction and integration
- mathematics and mathematical methods
- teaching and education
Also the university is widely known and appreciated from its research in history, social policy and political science.
See http://www.utu.fi/ for additional information.