The Tallinn University was established on 18 March 2005 as the result of a merger of several universities and research institutes in Tallinn as well as the Estonian Academic Library. Having merged with such well-established institutes as the International Institute of Social Sciences and the Estonian Institute of Humanities, its main strengths lie in the fields of humanities and social sciences, but it also has a strong and constantly growing component of natural and exact sciences, as well as a long tradition of teacher training and educational research. The University consists of 19 academic institutes and 5 colleges. At present, it has around 10 000 students as well as close to 500 faculty members and research fellows, on the whole being the fastest growing university in the country.