Bangladesh Agricultural University

Bangladesh Agricultural University, known as BAU, is a public university in Mymensingh, about 5 kilometres southeast of the city centre. It teaches agriculture and the sciences around it, including veterinary science, fisheries, animal husbandry and agricultural engineering.

Rankings

• QS World University Rankings 2027: band 1401+, national rank 6.
• QS Asia University Rankings 2026: 378, national rank 9.
• THE World University Rankings 2027: band 1001-1200, national rank 5.
• THE Asia University Rankings 2026: band 401-500, national rank 5.
• Webometrics 2024: world rank 2323, national rank 9.
• Ulkaa Edu Rank 2027: position 3 in Bangladesh with a score of 93. For positions 1 to 14 the position reflects Ulkaa's admission competitiveness assessment.

In the QS 2026 subject tables BAU appears for agriculture and forestry in the 251-300 band, first among Bangladeshi universities.

The 2023 data year records 7,426 students and 586 teachers, 381 of them with a PhD. The same source gives 665 teachers (434 with a PhD) for 2022, so staff numbers vary between years.

The university was established on 18 August 1961 as the East Pakistan Agricultural University. It was formed by upgrading the East Pakistan College of Veterinary Science and Animal Husbandry. After independence it was renamed Bangladesh Agricultural University in 1972.

The campus master plan was drawn up by the architect Paul Rudolph, and the central library, finished in 1969, was designed by Richard J. Neutra. Both buildings date from the university's early years. Wikipedia describes BAU as the third-oldest university in the country.

Today the university also has four institutes, which deal with graduate training, agribusiness and development, food security, and the char and haor regions.

Undergraduate applicants need an HSC or equivalent qualification and pass an entrance examination. Since 2019 BAU has taken part in a cluster admission system, with integrated entry exams held at the same time at several locations across the country.

The stored data shows 2,788 first-year admissions in 2023, up from 2,371 in 2022 and 2,026 in 2021. We do not have applicant counts or seat numbers for BAU, so we cannot give an applicants-per-seat figure.

Dates, subject requirements and unit rules change every year. Read the current admission circular on the official site before applying. Check the circular for which subject combinations are accepted by each of the six faculties.

BAU has six faculties with 45 departments, according to its Wikipedia entry:

• Agriculture: 17 departments
• Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology: 5 departments
• Agricultural Engineering and Technology: 5 departments
• Animal Husbandry: 5 departments
• Fisheries: 5 departments
• Veterinary Science: 8 departments

Four institutes sit alongside them: the Graduate Training Institute, the Institute of Agribusiness and Developmental Studies, the Interdisciplinary Institute for Food Security, and the Char and Haor Development Institute.

Ulkaa does not yet hold a programme-by-programme list for BAU, so use the official department pages for degree names and duration. Subject-level evidence comes from QS 2026, where agriculture and forestry is placed in the 251-300 band.

OpenAlex records 6,741 works over the five years to 2025, and 1,334 works in 2025 alone. Citations per work over five years were 7.94 in 2025, against 10.07 in 2024 and 11.27 in 2023. The five-year citation count was 53,542 in 2025.

About 39 percent of 2025 works had an international co-author, and the OpenAlex h-index was 208 in 2026. Of the 2025 works, 429 were tagged to medicine, 181 to business and 122 to engineering.

Research is organised through the faculties and four institutes, with the farms, botanical garden and museums used for teaching and fieldwork. For ranking evidence at subject level, see the QS 2026 agriculture and forestry entry mentioned above.

The campus is large, about 1,200 acres on the west bank of the Old Brahmaputra River. That space has room for ten major operating farms, a botanical garden of 25 acres with around 1,500 plant species, an Agriculture Museum opened in 2007, and a Fish Museum and Biodiversity Centre founded in 2009.

Students live in 14 halls, which are separated by gender. The farms, garden and museums give agriculture, veterinary and fisheries students practical places to learn on site.

The campus sits a few kilometres from Mymensingh city centre. Total enrolment was 7,426 in the 2023 data year; Wikipedia gives over 8,000 for 2024, made up of about 5,147 undergraduates and 2,941 postgraduates.