The Yaroslav-the-Wise Novgorod State University (orig. Новгородский Государственный Университет имени Ярослава Мудрого, НовГУ), also known informally as NovSU, was founded in 1993 by merging the two oldest higher education institutions of Veliky Novgorod: the Pedagogical and Polytechnic Institutes. Later, Novgorod Agricultural Academy was included into the structure of the University.At present it comprises seven Institutes and four Colleges of secondary vocational education.