The foundation of today's Dicle University dates back to the Diyarbakır Faculty of Medicine, which was first built as a subsidiary of Ankara University in 1966.
Built on a twenty-seven-thousand-acre area in the eastern side of the historical city of Diyarbakır, Dicle University takes its name from the river which splits the university from the city. Apart from its main campus in Diyarbakır, the university has vocational schools in counties like Ergani, Çermik, Çüngüş, Bismil, and Silvan.
The University encompasses 17,600 students, and about 3,500 staff from both academic and administrative type. In addition to mainstream activities, the University also serves as a regional health center with its 1,200-bed Research Hospital. By virtue of the sophisticated healthcare provided by the Hospital, people of the region only resort to hospitals in metropolitans like Ankara and İstanbul for severe health problems. Dicle University is one of the most prominent governmental institution, which provides training for almost all kinds of essential vocations that are most needed in the region, which conducts nationwide and international researches, and which produces projects for the regional economy. In an attempt to promote the living standards in the region by obtaining the maximum efficiency from the GAP (South Anatolian Project), the university emphasises the projects that would contribute to the regional economy initially through agriculture and livestock breeding.
Further, students' cultural and artistic activities and their achievements in sports both serve as a facilitating act for urban life and as an incentive to lead the youth towards a "modern society" by way of luring them to the university life.
