The University of Rijeka, as the most important higher education institution in the western part of Croatia, was founded in 1973. It consists of ten faculties, three teachers' schools, two university libraries and a Students' Centre. The total number of students enrolled in this academic year is 17,538.
 The University plans to establish new Centre for advanced technologies and Centre for e-commerce. The University is already an ALADIN (Alpe Adria Universities Initiative) member and in this capacity it fosters strong interest for the fields of e-commerce, e-medicine, e-logistics and e-geomatics and it has been already planned to develop further activities aimed at development of e-learning and integration into the international network of «virtual universities».