Maharshi Dayanand University, Rohtak was established through an Act of Legislative Assembly of Haryana in the year 1976 with a specific objective-

 "To establish and incorporate a teaching-cum-affiliating University at Rohtak for the encouragement of interdisciplinary higher education and research with special emphasis on studies of Life Sciences and Environmental and Ecological Sciences". During the last over 26 years of its existence the University has achieved a remarkable degree of success in its expansion programmes, infrastructural developments and in academic excellence.

Moving from the limited original objective of studies in Life Sciences, the University today functions under 13 faculties with 27 post-graduate departments on the campus running 77 academic programmes.

There are 66 Boards of Studies for developing and designing courses in different disciplines.

Besides the main Campus, there are 2 satellite campuses - Regional Centre running post-graduate teaching at Rewari and National Law College at Gurgaon.