Islamic University, Bangladesh

Islamic University, Bangladesh (IU) is a public university at Kushtia-Jhenaidah in the Khulna division, established in 1979. In 2023 it had 14,892 students and 408 teachers, 265 of them with a PhD. It is often called Islamic University Kushtia.

Rankings

• QS Asia University Rankings 2026: band 1101-1200, national position 35.
• Ulkaa Edu Rank 2027: position 18, computed from the published methodology. Ulkaa had data for about 86 percent of its indicators for this university.

IU does not appear in the stored THE or QS World lists for the latest editions.

The university was founded on 22 November 1979 on the order of President Ziaur Rahman, making it the first public university set up after independence in 1971. Teaching began later, on 28 June 1986.

Student numbers have stayed high for years: 15,893 in 2021, 13,813 in 2022 and 14,892 in 2023.

The government announced the plan for an Islamic university on 1 December 1976, and a planning committee headed by M. A. Bari reported on 7 January 1977. The Islamic University Act was passed on 27 December 1980. A presidential decree of 15 May 1982 moved the university to Boardbazar in Gazipur, where 300 students enrolled in the 1985-86 session in two faculties with four departments. On 28 December 1988 it moved back to Shantidanga-Dulalpur in Kushtia-Jhenaidah.

Undergraduate applicants take written entrance examinations organised by unit, with subjects set for each unit. The university admitted 4,856 first-year students in 2023, up from 4,303 in 2022.

Master's admission requires a bachelor's degree and an entrance test or interview, while M.Phil and PhD programmes assess academic credentials and research records. Current dates and rules are on iu.ac.bd. This page does not list tuition figures.

IU runs nine faculties with 41 departments, covering Islamic studies, engineering, sciences, business administration, law and the humanities. It awards bachelor's, master's, M.Phil and PhD degrees.

Ulkaa lists 17 programmes for the 2027 edition, among them:

• Computer Science and Engineering, Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Biomedical Engineering and Applied Chemistry and Chemical Engineering
• Al-Fiqh and Law, Law and Law and Land Administration
• Accounting and Information Systems, Management and Marketing
• Economics, English, Mathematics, Statistics and Data Science
• Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering and Pharmacy

The Pharmacy Council of Bangladesh register for 2026 holds one entry for the B.Pharm. The register may include entries whose validity has lapsed.

The university began with Al-Quran and Islamic Studies, Dawah and Islamic Studies, Accounting and Information System, and Management. Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Applied Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, and Computer Science and Engineering were established in 1995. Eight more departments, among them Biomedical Engineering, Pharmacy and Law and Land Management, followed in 2017, according to Wikipedia. The nine faculties are Theology and Islamic Studies, Islamic and Comparative Religions, Arts, Social Sciences, Law, Business Administration, Sciences, Engineering and Technology, and Biological Sciences.

OpenAlex records 1,746 works from IU over the five years to 2025, with 20,650 citations in the window (11.83 per work) and an h-index of 110 as of 2026. About 47 percent of 2025 papers have an international co-author.

The university maintains research institutes and publishes several academic journals. The AD Scientific Index of October 2021 ranked 17 IU teachers among the world's best scientists in its listing.

The campus covers about 175 acres in the Kushtia-Jhenaidah area of south-western Bangladesh.

Twelve residential halls, seven for men and five for women, offer a combined capacity of more than 7,600 seats. With around 15,000 students and a rural setting, most students live on campus or nearby. Clubs and events are listed on the official website.