Shahjalal University of Science and Technology was established in 1986. The campus is located in Kumargaon, approximately six kilometers away from the heart of Sylhet City Centre. The university started its academic program with three departments: physics, chemistry, and economics. Renowned scientist and educator Sadruddin Ahmed Chowdhury was the first Vice-chancellor of the university. The first convocation of SUST was held on 29 April 1998 and the second convocation held on 6 December 2007 where the third convocation was held on 8 January 2020. At present, SUST has 7,662 students, 487 academic staffs and 772 administrative staffs; i.e. the university has 6.09 students per staff. SUST is the first university in Bangladesh providing whole campus free Wi-Fi access for students and staff. The university introduced an integrated honors course for the first time in Bangladesh and it introduced the semester system (American credit system) from the 1996-97 session. In 2019, Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) allocated BDT 9.88 billion (US$117 million) fund for 20 development projects of SUST. The students of SUST invented and introduced the paperless 24/7 SMS Based Automated Registration of Admission Test procedure for the first time in Bangladesh. Interested students can complete the registration process through mobile phone messages. The contemporary government launched the system on 13 September 2009. For the invention, the university won an Ambillion Award in a competition of South Asian countries in 2010 and National Award for E-Content and ICT for Development Award 2010. Now, most of the public universities in Bangladesh have adopted this process of registration.