Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University country's only university of medical education and research established in Dhaka in 1998. During the days of Pakistan, in East Pakistan, which is Bangladesh today, there were several medical colleges that offered the MBBS degree. There was no scope for advanced post-graduate studies in medicine. In order to create facilities for post-graduate medical education, the Institute of Post-graduate Medicine and Research (IPGMR) was established in Dhaka in 1965. The IPGMR was entrusted with postgraduate teaching and research, but was not itself a degree-awarding institution. The country's oldest university (established in 1921), the university of dhaka, awarded degrees of the IPGMR study programmes together with the MBBS degree of the medical colleges. During the late 1990s the government of Bangladesh adopted a plan to establish several new universities in sectors such as science and technology, medicine and agriculture. This resulted in the conversion of IPGMR into a full-fledged medical university through an ordinance enacted by parliament on 30 April 1998. The new university was given the name Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU), after the name of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

The BSMMU offers postgraduate degrees such as MD, MS, MPhil and PhD. It also offers diplomas in many subjects to produce trained medical technologists. It also has under its administrative umbrella the postgraduate study component of the country's 13 government medical colleges. However, the MBBS programmes of these medical colleges are not yet under the administrative control of the BSMMU. The country's state-run general universities are still the institutions controlling the MBBS degree programmes of these medical colleges. At the same time, there are now about a dozen medical colleges in the private sector offering MBBS degrees through the degree awarding mechanism of the general universities of the country.

The BSMMU is located at the 'Shahbag' area of the city of Dhaka. Next to it lies another important biomedical institution, the Bangladesh Institute of Research and Rehabilitation in Diabetes, Endocrine and Metabolic Disorders (birdem). This provides easy academic interaction between these two famous institutions. BSMMU has at present a 167 member strong teaching faculty and has access to a 750-bed teaching hospital. The BSMMU Hospital (BSMMUH) and 33 departments contribute significantly to the country's postgraduate medical education and research.

The Vice-Chancellor is the chief executive of the university. He is responsible for conducting its affairs within the framework and policy directives of the Syndicate and the Government. The university exercises its functions and authorities in administrative and academic matters through a Syndicate, an Academic Council and other statutory bodies. [Zia Uddin Ahmed]