Bangladesh Agricultural University

Bangladesh Agricultural University or BAU was established as the only university of its kind in Bangladesh in 1961. The scheme for the establishment of BAU was finalized on 8 June 1961 and its ordinance was promulgated on 18 August 1961. With the appointment of its first Vice-Chancellor, the university formally came into existence on 2 September 1961 and started functioning with the College of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science at Mymensingh as its nucleus. Currently the university has 6 faculties and 43 departments covering all aspects of agricultural education and research.

Location
The University campus, with an area of 4.85 km², is located in scenic rural surroundings on the western bank of the old Brahmaputra River, 3 km south of the district town of Mymensingh and 120 km north from Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh. The campus is made up of a series of academic, administrative and residential buildings and a number of experimental farms, gardens and other related facilities. Besides, two national research institutes, namely, Bangladesh Institute of Nuclear Agriculture (BINA) and Bangladesh Fisheries Research Institute (BFRI) are housed in this campus.

War of Liberation
During the days of war of liberation in 1971, the teachers, students, officers and employees of the University responding to the call of the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman had put up a strong resistance against all conspiracies, massacres and genocide launched by the Pakistani Army and its henchmen. In a spontaneous assemblage of teachers, students and employees held at the guest house premises in the morning of 26 March 1971, all raised their voice in favour of joining the war of liberation and the then-Vice-Chancellor Professor Dr. Q.M.F. Rahim had declared there instantaneously: "From now on this University will be named as Swadhin Bangladesh Krishi Bishwabidyalaya (The Independent Bangladesh Agricultural University)". A large number of teachers, students, officers and employees of BAU had joined the great war of liberation and the University lost its 18 valiant heroes, who sacrificed their lives for the cause of liberating the motherland. They had no doubt left us forever, but spiritually these immortal martyrs are still with us and will remain alive in the days to come. The martyrs include one teacher, eleven students and six employees of BAU. Three halls of students' residence have been named after three valiant freedom fighters who laid their lives in the war of liberation. These halls of residence are: Shahid Shamsul Huq Hall, Shahid Nazmul Ahsan Hall and Shahid Jamal Hossain Hall.

Library
BAU central library has a collection of over 1, 84,942 volumes and 2,000 periodicals. No. of current journals 151. Also the libraries possess copy of all M.S and PhD theses. By using the university library card, students and teachers can lend books from the library. Besides the central library, the Faculty of Agricultural Economics & Rural Sociology has its own library which contains reference books and journals in the field of Agricultural Economics.

Research
BAU conducts two main streams of research, namely, the degree research and the project research, the former being supervised by the teachers for postgraduate students at both M.S. and PhD levels while the problem-solving research projects are conducted with sponsorship accorded either by the University or the external funding agencies. The Committee for Advanced Studies and Research (C.A.S.R) is responsible for coordinating both streams of research. However, for proper coordination and management of research projects, BAU Research System (BAURES) was established in 1984. Since its establishment, BAURES has successfully completed 322 research projects and has, at present, 112 ongoing projects. The ongoing research projects are funded by International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Department for International Development (DfID) of UK, Norwegian Agency for International Development (NORAD), International Foundation for Science (IFS) etc.
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