The Bangladesh Open University (Bengali: বাংলাদেশ উন্মূক্ত বিশ্ববিদ্যালয়) or BOU is a national university with its headquarters in Board Bazar, Gazipur District, Dhaka Division, Bangladesh. The university was established on October 21, 1992 when the Parliament of Bangladesh passed and gazetted the Bangladesh Open University Act, 1992 (BOU Act 1992) . As the only public university in Bangladesh to use distance education as a method of delivery, BOU is mandated to "promote through multimedia; instruction of every standard and knowledge - both general and scientific - by means of any form of communications technology, to raise the standard of education and to give the people educational opportunities by democratizing education and creating a class of competent people by raising the standard of education of the people generally" . Distance education was first introduced into Bangladesh when the Education Directorate was assigned with the responsibility for distribution of 200 radio receivers to educational institutions. This led to the creation of an Audio-Visual Cell and later the Audio-Visual Education Centre (AVEC) in 1962.