In the north-west of the city lies Tashkent’s largest architectural complex — the university campus, which unites the buildings of the National University of Uzbekistan and Tashkent State Technical University.

The decision to build the campus was made in 1959, as the faculties and administrative buildings of these universities were scattered across the city, outdated, and hindering their development.

The project was entrusted to Moscow’s “Giprovuz” institute for university design. Yelena Kalashnikova was appointed chief architect. Together with colleagues — architects Ye. Sudakov, M. Ivashkin, M. Fyodorova, Ye. Baburskaya, and engineers Ye. Yegorov and N. Gorbunov — she created a project reflecting the contemporary trends of minimalism and functional priority. The complex combined administrative buildings, academic blocks, a cultural centre, and student dormitories. Construction began in 1961; by 1971 some faculties had already started the academic year in the new buildings.

The main visual landmark of the complex is the 11-storey administrative building and the central academic block, from which teaching wings connected by galleries extend in different directions.

In the early 1980s the administrative building of the Polytechnic Institute was constructed, while its mechanical, geological, and energy faculties had begun operating back in 1971–1972.

Today the National University comprises 17 faculties, 85 departments, and around 1,300 teaching staff.

The Polytechnic University (since 1991 — Tashkent State Technical University; originally the Industrial Institute, from 1949 the Polytechnic Institute) was founded in 1933 on the basis of university faculties. In 2017 it was named after Islam Karimov. Currently, TSTU has 8 faculties, 58 departments, 735 lecturers, and over 11,000 students.