The National University (NU; Bengali: জাতীয় বিশ্ববিদ্যালয়) is a public collegiate university of Bangladesh that was established in 1992 by an Act of Parliament as an affiliating university of the country to impart graduate and post-graduate level education to the students through its affiliated colleges, schools and professional institutions throughout the country. The number of colleges under the NU is 2,257. Of these, 555 are government colleges. A total of 881 colleges offer honors courses. It is the Second largest university in the world in terms of enrollment. The headquarters is in Gazipur, on the outskirts of Dhaka. After its establishment it affiliated association degree awarding colleges, where many of them were previously affiliated by the University of Dhaka, University of Rajshahi, University of Chittagong and Shahjalal University of Science and Technology.

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It is a postgraduate teaching and research university as well as an affiliating university. It is state-run and public. The university has a school and a centre. It has established institutes that provide courses leading to MPhil and PhD degrees.

The Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences (IHS) was introduced in 1997 to offer two-year M.Phil. following modern American credit hour and semester system including course work, two-month internship and thesis guided by a supervisor. The M.Phil. is an interdisciplinary degree which is intensive enough to help the students to pursue PhD courses. The course is open to faculty members who are employed at universities and colleges.

Four more institutes – the Institute of Liberation and Bangladesh Studies (ILBS), Institute of National Science (INS), Institute of Life Sciences (ILS), and Institute of Business and Management Studies (IBMS) – have all the formalities complete toward their constitutions and are soon to provide higher courses related to science, needs of life, and national heritage.

Very few of the teachers teaching at honours and masters level have higher training. The training programme of the university is designed to augment the knowledge of the college teachers, enhance their skill in teaching and get them an exposure to higher ideas. Eminent educationists and scholars of the country are associated with the academic programmes provided on campus.

There are four academic units:

• School of Under Graduate Studies
• Centre for Post-Graduate Studies Training & Research
• M. Phil./Ph.D.Programme Unit
• Centre for Curriculum Development and Evaluation

The school and centres organise education in colleges and improve the standard. The university provides bachelor's, honours and master's degrees in ten disciplines: languages, humanities, social science, commerce and business administration, physical sciences, mathematical sciences, biological science, education, law and computer technology.

Apart from the units providing campus teaching at Board Bazar, Gazipur, the university has about 2,254 component/affiliated colleges. These colleges under its academic control cater for courses leading to Pass, Honours and master's degrees. The university exercises academic control over the colleges according to the National University Act 1992 mandated by the National Parliament of Bangladesh and the statutes of the university. It provides the curricula and syllabi, arranges admission test, gives guidelines for admission, arranges inspection, holds examination, publishes results, and awards certificates.

The National University of Bangladesh is now the fifth largest university in the world after its 17-year history by its number of registered students at affiliated colleges. It is also one of the largest universities in the world by number of affiliated colleges and number of expanding subjects and courses.

• Faculty of Arts
  • Department of Arabic
  • Department of Bengali
  • Department of English
  • Department of Pali
  • Department of Sanskrit
  • Department of History
  • Department of Islamic History & Culture
  • Department of Islamic Studies
• Faculty of Business Studies
  • Department of BBA (Professional)
  • Department of Aviation Management
  • Department of Library Management
  • Department of Accounting
  • Department of Finance & Banking
  • Department of Management
  • Department of Marketing
  • Department of Tourism and Hospitality Management
• Faculty of Engineering (Professionals)
  • Dept. of Aeronautical and Aviation Science and Engineering
  • Dept. of Computer Science and Engineering
  • Dept. of Electronics and Communication Engineering
• Faculty of Life & Earth Science
  • Department of Psychology
  • Department of Zoology
  • Department of Geography & Environment Studies
  • Department of Botany
• Faculty of Science
  • Department of Computer Science
  • Department of Chemistry
  • Department of Physics
  • Department of Mathematics
  • Department of Statistics
• Faculty of Social Science
  • Department of Economics
  • Department of Political science
  • Department of Sociology
  • Department of Social Work
  • Department of Anthropology
  • Department of Public Administration
  • Department of Home Economics
  • Department of Information science and Library Management
• Faculty of Technology (Professionals)
  • Department of FDT
  • Department of AMT
  • Department of KMT

Full list of the vice-chancellors.

1. Muhammad Abdul Bari (1992–1996)
2. Aminul Islam (1996–2000)
3. Durgadas Bhattacharjee (2000–2001)
4. Abdul Momin Chowdhury (2001–2003)
5. Aftab Ahmad (2003–2005)
6. Wakil Ahmed (2005–2007)
7. Syed Rashedul Hasan (in-charge;2007–2008)
8. M Mofakhkharul Islam (2008–2009)
9. Kazi Shahidullah (2009–2013)
10. Harun-or-Rashid (2013–2021)
11. Md. Moshiur Rahman (2021–2024)
12. A S M Amanullah (2024–)

• The National University Journal
• Publication "7 দফা'র 100 বছর"
• Newsletter
• Samachar
• Masters Regular Quata Admission Result

There are around 2,254 colleges affiliated to NUB. Some of them include: