University of Dhaka established in 1921 under the Dacca University Act 1920 of the Indian Legislative Council. It opened its doors to academic activities on 1 July 1921 with 3 faculties, 12 teaching departments, 60 teachers, 847 students and 3 residential halls. Today, there are 10 faculties, 48 departments, 9 institutes, 26 research centres, 1,345 teachers, about 25,000 students and 17 residential halls. Two-thirds of the present faculty possess degrees from universities of Europe, North America, Asia and Australia. Many of them achieved international renown for their scholarship. Many also have the experience of teaching in well-known institutions of higher learning abroad.

Initially, the university worked hard to build up an outstanding record of academic achievement, earning for itself the reputation of being the 'Oxford of the East'. The university contributed to the emergence of a generation of leaders who distinguished themselves in different walks of life in East Bengal. Until the Partition of Bengal in 1947, it maintained its unique character of being one of the few residential institutions of higher learning in Asia. In 1947, it assumed academic authority over all educational institutions above the secondary level falling within East Bengal. In the process it became a teaching-cum-affiliating institution. This transformation, coupled with its unprecedented growth in the years that followed, put strains beyond reckoning on its human as well as material resources.

The emergence of several new universities later did little to ease the burden of Dhaka University. Its academic life was severely disrupted during the war of liberationwhen a large number of its distinguished teachers and a considerable number of its students and employees lost their lives. The teachers, who were killed, include Dr. GC Dev, Dr. ANM Muniruzzaman, Santosh C Bhattacharya, Dr. Jyotirmoy Guha Thakurta, AN Munir Chowdhury, Mofazzal Haider Chowdhury, Dr. Abul Khair, Dr. Serajul Hoque Khan, Rashidul Hasan, Anwar Pasha, Dr. Fazlur Rahman, Giasuddin Ahmed, Dr. Faizul Mohi, Abdul Muktadir, Sarafat Ali, Sadat Ali, AR Khan Khadim, and Anudippayan Bhattachariya. The university's chief medical officer, Dr. Mohammad Mortuza, and a teacher of the University Laboratory School, Mohammad Sadeq were also killed.

The university demonstrated an inherent strength in its activities during its eventful and often critical existence of over 80 years. Today, it provides about 70% of the trained human resources of Bangladesh engaged in education, science and technology, administration, diplomacy, mass communication, politics, trade and commerce, and industrial enterprises in all sectors.

The university, however, was not founded in a day; nor did the process get going without pains. A combination of a whole set of political, social and economic compulsions persuaded the government of India to establish it 'as a splendid imperial compensation' to Muslims for the annulment of the partition of Bengal. The first vice-chancellor of the university, Dr. PJ Hartog, formerly academic registrar of the University of London for 17 years and a member of the university of calcuttaCommission, described this phenomenon as the 'political origin' of the institution.

The partition of bengalin 1905 provided the Muslim majority community of East Bengal and Assam with a sphere of influence of their own and raised new hopes for the development of the region and advancement of its people. But its annulment, barely six years later in the face of stiff opposition from the powerful Hindu leadership, was viewed by Muslims as 'a grievous wrong'. Muslims were late to realise that their educational backwardness was a root cause of their decline in other fields of life. Hindus had a clear lead of at least 50 years in adopting the system of education introduced by the British, which freed the Indian mind from the 'thraldom of old-world ideas' and initiated a renaissance in Indian life. This put Hindus in advantageous positions in every sphere of influence in Bengal. At least four high-level commissions - the hunter commissionof 1882, the nathan commissionof 1912, the Hornell Committee of 1913, and the Calcutta University Commission of 1917 - confirmed this observation.

Viceroy lord hardingewas quick to perceive the dissatisfaction of Muslims at the government's decision for annulment and decided to pay an official visit to Dhaka to assuage the aggrieved community. A deputation of high ranking Muslim leaders, including Sir Nawab khwaja salimullah, Nawab Syed Nawab Ali Choudhury and ak fazlul huq, met him on 31 January 1912 and expressed their fears that the annulment would retard the educational progress of their community. As compensation for the annulment of the Partition, as well as protest against the general antipathy of Calcutta University towards Muslims, the deputation made a vigorous demand for a university at Dhaka. In response, Lord Hardinge acknowledged that education was the true salvation of Muslims and that the government would recommend to the Secretary of State the constitution of such a university. This was confirmed in an official communiqu頯n 2 February 1912. Lord Hardinge admitted that since 1906 the province of Eastern Bengal and Assam had made great strides forward. That year there were 1,698 collegiate students in Eastern Bengal and Assam, and expenditure on collegiate education was Rs 154,358. In 1912, with the same number of institutions, the corresponding figures are 2,560 students and Rs 383,619. Educational classes and schemes were formed with reference to local conditions. From 1905 to 1910-11, the number of pupils in public institutions rose from 699,051 to 936,653 and the expenditure from provincial revenues rose from Rs 1,106,510 to Rs 2,205,339 while the local expenditure, direct and indirect, rose from Rs 4,781,833 to Rs 7,305,260.

Many Hindu leaders were not happy with the government's intention to set up a university at Dhaka. On 16 February 1912, a delegation headed by advocate Dr Rash Bihari Ghosh, met the viceroy and expressed the apprehension that the establishment of a separate university at Dhaka would promote 'an internal partition of Bengal'. They also contended, as was recorded in the Calcutta University Commission report later, that "Muslims of Eastern Bengal were in large majority cultivators and they would benefit in no way by the foundation of a university". Lord Hardinge assured the delegation that no proposals, which could lead to the internal partition or division of Bengal would meet the support of the government. He also expressed that the new university would be open to all and it would be a teaching and a residential university. At one stage, Lord Hardinge told Sir Asutosh Mukherjee, vice-chancellor of Calcutta University, that he was determined to establish a university at Dhaka in spite of all their opposition.

The opposition by Hindu intelligentsia was not the only hurdle in implementation of the plan for the new university. Many complex legal and material issues were to be examined. After obtaining the approval of the Secretary of State, in a letter on 4 April 1912, the government of India invited the government of Bengal to submit a complete scheme for the university, along with a financial estimate. Accordingly, in a resolution of 27 May 1912, the government of Bengal appointed a committee of 13 members headed by Mr Robert Nathan, a barrister from London, to draw up a scheme for Dhaka University. The resolution emphasised that 'the university should be a teaching and residential one and not of the federal type' and that 'it should bind together the colleges of the city and should not include any college which is beyond the limits of the town'. The committee acted with speed and with the thoroughness and wisdom of 25 special sub-committees it submitted its report in autumn of the same year. The report contained plans of the proposed buildings and estimates of capital expenditure amounting to Rs 5.3 million (later raised to Rs 6.7 million by PWD) and of recurring expenditure amounting to Rs 1.2 million. The report went into considerable details about the mission of the university and its courses of study. The committee recommended that the university should be a state institution with unitary teaching and residential form on the model of modern UK universities such as Manchester, Leeds, and Liverpool, and that it should encompass seven colleges including Dacca College and Jagannath College. The entire teaching in science, law, medicine, and engineering at postgraduate level was to be conducted by the university itself. In fact, the Dhaka university model was highly appraised and was later, followed in establishing new universities at Allahabad, Benaras, Hyderabad, Aligarh, Lucknow and Annamalai.

The Nathan committee suggested for the university a spectacular site of about 243 acres forming part of the new civil station created at Ramna for the government of Eastern Bengal and Assam. The site housed Curzon Hall, Dacca College, the new government house, the secretariat, the government press, a number of houses for officers, and other minor buildings. In due course, all this land with their buildings and other properties was made over to the university in a permanent lease on a nominal rent of Rs 1,000 a year. After the committee report was published in 1913, public opinion was invited before the university scheme was given its final shape. The secretary of state approved it in December 1913. Then the First World War intervened creating acute financial stringency for the government. Even a skeletal scheme estimated to cost only Rs 1,125,000 could not be taken up. This caused misgivings in the minds of Muslim leaders. When Nawab Syed Nawab Ali Choudhury raised the issue in the Indian Legislative Council on 7 March 1917, Shankaran Nair, the government spokesman, reaffirmed the government pledge to establish the university at Dhaka, but added that consideration of a bill already drafted would now have to wait for a report from the Calcutta University Commission, to which the Dhaka university scheme had been referred for advice regarding its constitution and management.

The decision to appoint a commission to enquire into the problems and needs of Calcutta University was announced by its chancellor Lord Chelmsford at a convocation on 6 January 1917. Accordingly a commission was formed with Dr. ME Sadler as its chairman. The commission justified the setting up of a university at Dhaka, the second largest town of the Presidency. Report of the Sadler Commission also indicated that Dhaka was already in the centre of a great student population as Dhaka division and Tippera district supplied 7,097 out of a total number of 27,290 students in the University of Calcutta. The Commission agreed with most parts of the Nathan Committee scheme and urged that the University of Dhaka should be established without further delay.

The commission made 13 recommendations, which were adopted, with few exceptions, in the Dhaka University Act 1920. The Governor General of India appointed Dr. PJ Hartog as the first vice-chancellor for a term of 5 years beginning 1 December 1920. He assumed office on 10 December 1920. The new university immediately faced serious problems in regard to funds for which it was entirely dependent upon inelastic public revenues from the Bengal government, which would not give a single rupee without authorisation from the legislative council. The next difficulty, as reported by the chancellor to the first court meeting, had been in satisfying the expectations of the Mohammedan community. In spite of the best endeavours the university administration was able to secure only a small number of Muslims for the teaching staff. Also the number of Muslim students, who represented barely 9% of university students in Bengal, were not many in the university in its initial years. The annual recurring expenditure proposed by the Nathan committee for the university was Rs 1.3 million but Sir Pravash Mitter, education minister of the Bengal government, reduced it to Rs 500,000. A fund of about Rs 5.6 million built up by the government of India for capital expenditure on the university, when transferred to the Bengal government for disbursement, was merged by Mitter with provincial funds. Only Rs 900,000 was released on the plea that 'the Dhaka University was in possession of an extensive area of land and many buildings of the government of Bengal'.

On top of this, the education minister directed the University to retrench and restrict expenditure to stay within the recurring grant of Rs 500,000. The retrenchment was felt most severely in the departments of Islamic Studies, English, Chemistry and Economics. Mr Hartog also referred to the rumour spread by activists of the non-cooperation movement that the tuition fee for an undergraduate student of the university was raised from Rs 8 to Rs 60. This discouraged admission in the opening session in 1921. Hartog, however, reported to the annual court meeting of 1922-23 that he felt proud of the achievements of the university. He put the university on a firm footing in his 5-year tenure of dedicated service in it. The advancement of the young university in the direction of academic excellence diligently marked by Hartog was carried forward by his able successors such as Prof Harry Langley, AF Rahman, Dr. RC Majumdar and Dr. Mahmood Hasan and others.

The Partition of Bengal in 1947 considerably altered the character of Dhaka University. The East Bengal Educational Ordinance of 1947 added an affiliating character to its residential-cum-teaching model by calling upon it to assume the responsibilities of affiliation and supervision of 55 colleges which were previously under the University of Calcutta. The university was unburdened of this responsibility in 1992 when the national universitywas created to take over this task.

During the Ward War II the government of India requisitioned some buildings of the university for military use. After Partition, the new government of East Pakistan requisitioned many more of them for offices and residences of government employees. This created an acute problem of accommodation to add to the problem of finance. The Pakistan government was indifferent to the university's needs and planned to move the university away from the city to keep its students out of politics. When General Ayub Khan seized power in October 1958, teachers and students of the university were already in the forefront of protests against the government's attempts to suppress the demands of the East Pakistanis for autonomy and the rightful place for Bengali as a state language of the country. In 1952, police killed some students agitating for a place of honour for their mother tongue. The government's response was to eventually replace the Dacca University Act 1920 by an ordinance in 1961, totally depriving the university of its autonomy and of democratic traditions. Termed a 'black law', the ordinance created a suffocating atmosphere in the university. The atmosphere of terror and oppression created in the whole country by successive military regimes led to mass upsurge, and ultimately, to the War of Liberation waged by Bengalis in 1971. Teachers and students of the university were in the forefront of this war and paid a heavy price in blood.