Former Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia laid the foundation stone of Noakhali Science and Technology University on 11 October 2003. Earlier the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina took necessary steps to establish this university. At 15 July 2001 her government passed a law in the parliament. Its construction work was formally inaugurated on 24 March 2005. Finally, it started its academic activities on 22 June 2006. It is the fifth of 12 such universities the government decided in 1997 to establish in the 12 erstwhile greater districts where there was no university.