Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University (ÇOMÜ in Turkish) is a Turkish university located in Çanakkale (Dardanos) province (near Gallipoli) and its surrounding towns and is member of the Balkan Universities Network and hosted the World Universities Congress 2010. COMU was founded in 1992 based upon the Faculty of Education on the Anafartalar Campus. Before this the facilities had housed a Teacher Training Institute, then a branch of Trakya University. With its new status and intake from Turkey's large youth population, the university developed quickly in terms of the number of students, staff and facilities, spurring the opening of new faculties and colleges. The university has expanded rapidly over the last few years and in the 2005-2006 academic year there were over 19,000 students participating in a wide variety of programs taught by 960 academic staff in 2 graduate schools, 9 faculties, 2 polytechnic colleges (four year programs) and 11 vocational colleges (two-year programs). There are several campuses in Canakkale itself, and some of the academic units are located in other towns of the province.