Samara State University of Social Sciences and Education was founded in 1911 as Teaching Institute and was the first Pedagogical Institution of higher education in the Volga region. Already in 1929 it comprised 3 faculties: Philological, Economics and Physics and Mathematics. In 1934-1935 the Kuibyshev Pedagogical Institute had 5 faculties with 11 different departments. Later on in 1956 it united with the Syzran (a town in the Samara region) Pedagogical Institute to become one of the most important establishment of higher education in the USSR. In 80s about 6000 students studied at 8 faculties. In 1994 it was renamed to Samara State Pedagogical University.
