Novosibirsk State Technical University (Abbreviation: NSTU), until 1992 the Novosibirsk Electrotechnical Institute (NETI), is one of the major research and educational centers of Russia as well as one of the top technical universities located in Novosibirsk, Russia. History The university was established in accordance with the USSR Council of Ministries' Decree of 19 August 1950. It has 11 faculties and 2 institutes: Institute of Social Rehabilitation and Institute of Distant Education, 73 departments, 4 branches and 9 NSTU representative offices. At present, more than 14,000 students are receiving quality educations at NSTU. The teaching staff consists of 968 full-time and 216 part-time lecturers including 184 Professors, Doctors of Science, 762 Associate Professors and Candidates of Science. The center of Information Technologies provides the university with a local network of more than 600 computers. The network has more than 5 km of connections with access to the internet. A project for accessing information from the scientific library is underway. Since 1996 a data base has been under development on the basis of Folio Infobase. The university publishes the journal NSTU Bulletin, scientific works, textbooks, monographs, and teaching manuals. Candidates of Science and Doctors of Science are conferred by 11 specialist councils. The university's library holds a book supply, consisting of the newest books in English, received by the university within the framework of the program TACIS - "Economic Education". The printing house of NSTU publishes scientific transactions and monographs and provides students with notebooks and school supplies. The university has an academic choir, an ensemble of violinists widely known in Novosibirsk and a jazz orchestra, the laureate of big number of competitions and festivals, including the European Music Festival for Young People in Neerpelt. International links NSTU actively cooperates with foreign universities and has made 25 agreements for co-operation in scientific research, education and culture with universities of America, Germany, France, South Korea, China, etc. Also student mobility are promoted with other technical universities through the Salzburg Seminar, Britain Council, DAAD, INTAS, TEMPUS, EDRUS-TACIS, TACIS. A regional center for international cooperation in the educational field of engineering has been working in NSTU since 1995. Authorized training centers of leading companies from the US and Germany, e.g. Sun Microsystems, Texas Instruments, Schneider, DEC, Autodesk, Motorola, AEG, and DMG have been opened. In 2009, NSTU was chosen as a university of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. It is a member of several academic co-operations