Manarat International University was established on 21 May 2001 by the Manarat Trust which owns Manarat Dhaka International School and College. In August 2016, Rapid Action Battalion arrested three students of the university who were members of the female unit of Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh. Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime arrested a student of the university for being a member and recruiter of a banned religious extremist group, Ansar Al Islam, in November 2021. In September 2022, the government of Bangladesh dismantled the existing trustee board alleging it had links with Islamist militants and Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami. The vice-chancellor, Md Nazrul Islam, said he was ignorant about the allegations as he was appointed only in 2020. Mayor of Dhaka North and Awami League politician, Atiqul Islam, was appointed chairman of the newly created Trustee board. Justices Zafar Ahmed and Md Akhtaruzzaman of the High Court Division issued a ruling in October asking the government to explain why their actions should not be declared illegal following a petition by AKM Fazlul Haque, who was a member of the disbanded trustee board of Manarat International University. In November, the university offered a 50 per cent discount on admission fees. On 2 January 2023, the University Grants Commission ordered Manarat International University to only recruit students for their permanent campus and not their temporary campuses.