˜Nathan Committee" constituted by the British Government recommended to establish a tertiary level educational institution for the people of the East Bengal in 1912. Considering the report submitted by Mr. Nathan, Calcutta University Commission took decision of establishing a residential hall based university and after much dispute, Mr. PG Hartog, took over the charge of Vice Chancellor of the University of Dhaka on 10 Dec 1920. Enrollment of students started from 10 July 1921.
In the beginning, the journey of Dhaka University started with three halls (Salimullah Muslim Hall, Jagannath Hall & Dhaka Hall). In 1921-22 session, Salimullah Muslim hall started functioning with 75 residential students (according to another opinion 87) and 103 non residential students on the first floor of Dhaka Medical College. Ahmed Fazlur Rahman, Reader of History Department (Associate Professor), Ex-Faculty of Aligarh Muslim University (alma mater from Oxford University) was appointed as Provost of Salimullah Muslim Hall. The Present building of Salimullah Muslim Hall was inaugurated on 11 August 1931.