Bangladesh Open University

Bangladesh Open University, shortened to BOU, is a public distance-learning university. It was established on 21 October 1992 under the BOU Act 1992, and its headquarters are at Board Bazar in Gazipur. Teaching uses multimedia and communications technology and a network of regional centres, instead of a single residential campus.

It is not ranked by Ulkaa. The Ulkaa methodology leaves out affiliating and distance-learning universities, because measures such as students per teacher or first-year intake do not compare fairly with a campus-based university. The page therefore shows no Ulkaa position. UGC figures record 551,821 students and 147 teachers in 2023, of whom 51 held a PhD, with 90,888 new admissions that year. Webometrics 2024 lists it at world rank 6,111. Ulkaa holds no QS or THE entry for BOU.

Wikipedia gives the founding date as 21 October 1992, under the BOU Act 1992.

UGC counts for the years Ulkaa has show a very large and shrinking enrolment: 654,636 students in 2021, 636,843 in 2022 and 551,821 in 2023. New admissions were 131,610 in 2021, 107,656 in 2022 and 90,888 in 2023. Teacher counts were 141 in 2021 and 2022 and 147 in 2023.

Bangladesh Open University admits students to the programmes listed on its official website. UGC data records 90,888 new admissions in 2023. Entry requirements, dates and deadlines change every session, so confirm them with the university or the current notice before you apply. The requirement differs by programme.

Before you apply, compare the programme you want with the current UGC information, ask the regional centre about tutorial schedules and exams, and check how your result will be used. Tuition and other costs are not covered on this page, so ask the university for the current fee schedule.

Wikipedia lists six schools: Education, Social Science, Humanities and Languages, Business, Agriculture and Rural Development, Science and Technology, and the Open School. It counts 62 programmes in total, 43 of them formal and 19 non-formal.

Wikipedia also describes 12 regional resource centres, 80 coordinating offices and about 1,000 tutorial centres across the country. A student normally studies with printed and multimedia materials and attends tutorial sessions at a nearby centre, so ask which centre serves your area before you choose a programme. Ulkaa holds no programme or accreditation records for BOU.

OpenAlex records 438 works in the five years to 2025 and 3,513 citations, or about 8.0 citations per work, with an h-index of 43 in 2026. For 2025 it lists 146 works, among them 61 tagged to medicine, 43 to computer science and 32 to business. About 23 per cent of its 2025 works have an international co-author.

Because BOU is a distance university, student life centres on the regional resource centre and tutorial centre that serve you, not on a central campus. Wikipedia gives the headquarters as Board Bazar, Gazipur. This page has no verified detail on centre facilities, so it makes no claims about them. Ask the regional centre about tutorial schedules, library access and exam venues.