Originally, the university was to consist of 4 departments as listed in the Charter of Imperial universities. However, TSU began with only a Medical Department. During the following years the problem of its extension was being solved. Nevertheless, the Medical Department had all the necessary divisions and study-rooms to teach students the entire range of natural sciences. The opening of the Law Department meant that the university had a wider range of departments that taught the arts. In 1917 when two more departments - the Department of Physics and Mathematics and the Department of History and Philology - were established, the university complied with the original vision.
Today TSU is the largest classic university in the East of Russia. There are 23 departments, 5 branches, educating more than 23,000 students in 85 specializations and programs.
TSU was the first to carry out multilevel and continuous education. This includes pre-admission (pre-college) education, preparing specialists, bachelors and masters (graduate programs), post-graduate education, retraining and refresher courses.

The university has established 45 centers of pre-admission training on campuses of secondary schools in different regions of Siberia and Khazakhstan which annually enable 2,000 people to study there.

TSU offers a program "Training Managers and Executives for the Enterprises of the National Economy" (Presidential Management Training Initiative). Its alumni are in great demand as top and senior managers at numerous enterprises.
The university has been very active in developing distance-learning programs, multi-media courses, electronic textbooks, etc. including those for secondary schools. Many of them have been highly graded at international exhibitions. The university pays great attention to the training of secondary school teachers.
In 2001 TSU got certified and accredited by the State Committee of the Ministry of Education after a successful complex assessment of the university's activities. It again allows the university to confirm its status as a leading university.
According to the RF Ministry of Education TSU is ranked fifth following MSU, StPSU, Moscow Physical-Technical Institute and the Russian University of Peoples' Friendship. To say this another way, it is the first regional university.