Šiauliai University, established in 1997, is located in Šiauliai, Lithuania. As of 2008, the University was attended by approximately 11,800 students. Šiauliai University was founded by a merger of the Šiauliai Pedagogical Institute and the Šiauliai Polytechnical Faculty of the Kaunas University of Technology. The latter had been a branch of the former Kaunas Polytechnical Institute branch since 1959. The University has eight faculties: education, natural sciences, humanities, mathematics and informatics, arts, social sciences, social welfare and disability studies, and technology. There are two autonomous institutes, the Continuing Studies Institute and the Gender Studies Institute, in addition to the European Studies Institute, which is part of the Faculty of Humanities. It is governed by a senate. The university offers Bachelor's degrees, master's degrees, and doctoral studies.