Since the 1990’s, size and nature of animal industry has been changing rapidly. Commercial dairy and poultry farming started recognizing as one of the most potential sectors for local and foreign investment. Livestock and poultry as a contributor to food security and nutrition has become one of the most important agenda for the policy makers and development partners. Rapid urbanization and changes of food habit among the city dwellers has been accelerated bringing about the changes in food industry with a gradual demand in academic reforms and expansion in need for developing technology and more skilled manpower in animal health, food processing and marketing.
The need of Bangladesh in the past and at present has been to increase the productivity of farm animal and the purpose of having veterinary graduates is still largely determined by the need of the small holding livestock farmers. However, this reality was apparently ignored during the second change in veterinary education in Bangladesh. One of the causes of this narrow-based curricula approach for a professional education like veterinary medicine may be that the drive and energy for this change came primarily from the internal agendas of the academic community rather than from the external agendas of the wider society or the world of work. As a result, a strong debate was generated among professional bodies, government agencies and farmers community to bring new changes in veterinary education. While these debate countries, little or no change occurred in the higher education in veterinary medicine until the beginning of 1990s.
The inception of Chittagong Government Veterinary college in 1995 which later transformed into Chittagong Veterinary and Animal Sciences University was associated with the aforementioned social and economic changes and demands to overcome past weaknesses of the Veterinary education.
To produce skilled and competent veterinarians of international standard through offering the combined courses (Veterinary and Animal Sciences) including internship, the government initially established two veterinary colleges in Sylhet and Chittagong respectively in the year 1995-96 and later added two more veterinary colleges in Dinajpur and Barishal. Chittagong Government Veterinary College (CGVC) started its journey on January, 1996 admitting 50 students in its first academic session under the faculty of Science, University of Chittagong.
Subsequently, being satisfied with the academic activities, congenial environment and quality educational system, the University of Chittagong upgraded this affiliated college into separate Faculty of Veterinary Medicine with the approval of the University Grants Commission of Bangladesh (UGC). As a dense livestock industry based emerging zone, wide range and volume of quality livestock professionals, industry need specific research, development and service institutionalization in the entire Chittagong Division has long been sought. Realizing this potential of CGVC to enable to cater local demand, the elite society, educationists, politicians of different party, journalists, professionals and people from all walk of life of greater Chittagong brought them together to a common consensus and platform to raise a big demand and initiated a movement for the establishment of a Veterinary University in Chittagong.
As a result, The Chittagong Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (CVASU) was established by the Act of the Government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh on 07 August, 2006 in order to confer 5 (five) years' Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) degree and Higher degrees on various other subjects/courses/fields and to enhance research and development in the field of Veterinary and Animal Sciences. In its initial phase of developing two new faculties namely, Faculty of Food Science and Technology and Faculty of Fisheries were planned to open within 5 years of university inception.
