Erciyes University is a Turkish institute of higher education located in Kayseri, Turkey. As of 4 April 2006, a total of 28,474 students are studying for their bachelors degree and postgraduate studies. Erciyes University began as the Gevher Nesibe Medical Faculty, which was opened as an affiliation with Hacettepe University in 1969; and Kayseri Business Administration Faculty, which opened in 1977, constituted an independent university under the name of The University of Kayseri in 1978. In 1982, the other two Higher Education Institutions in Kayseri were incorporated into the same university as Faculty of Engineering and Faculty of Theology. Then its name was converted into Erciyes University. The name of the university has an inspiration from Mount Erciyes, which is 15 kilometres to the south-west of the university, and is 3,917 metres high. Today, besides a campus in Kayseri's city-center, the university runs its activities in Central Anatolia, which provides education in 17 faculties, 14 vocational high schools, 4 institutions and 9 research centers, and a highly developed research hospital with 1,000 beds.