Kutaisi International University, the largest project for an educational institution in Georgia in recent decades, is ready to open its doors to first students from the country and abroad with the start of the new academic year in September.
Completed in time for the opening of schools and universities next month, the University is the central part of a governmental initiative for transforming the western city of Kutaisi into a regional hub of education and medicine.
Part of a €1 billion effort that also includes building a hadron therapy centre as part of its complex - with two cyclotrons used by scientists for cancer research and treatment - the University has seen submissions from about 1,000 students for admission in its first year.
Students applying for maths, computer science and management will take the first classes at the newly opened venue, with more majors to be added annually to its academic programme. In-person classes will see teachers residing in University campus lead their students, while remotely organised sessions will enable Georgian scientists living abroad to contribute their knowledge.
The sprawling complex will house teachers and students at campus and also include a hadron therapy centre for research and treatment. Photo via Kutaisi International University.
The University's academic programmes have been modelled on those of the Technical University of Munich, with professionals from the German school involved in the project along with those from Ion Beam Applications, a leading international producer of proton therapy hardware.
Zviad Shalamberidze, the State Representative in the Imereti region, told reporters the opening of the University marked a "new era for education in Kutaisi". He also said the regional capital had ambitions of becoming a hub for education in the country.
In his comments, Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia told local media the University effort would not be the final project for the city and stressed his government saw educational, tourist, industrial, medical and healthcare fields as directions for its future profile.
The project for the sprawling University complex was launched in 2016, with founders aiming to see it "prepare highly qualified workforce and human capital that will promote economic growth and development of Georgia and the entire region".