[8] On February 25, 1919, the Central Executive Committee of the Belorussian SSR resolved to establish the first national university in Belarus.

However, the occupation of Minsk by the Polish army delayed these plans, and the university's opening was set back to October 30, 1921.

The faculty included 14 professors, 49 lecturers and 10 teaching assistants, most of whom were transferred from the universities of Moscow, Kazan and Kiev.

By 1930, the university consisted of six faculties: Workers, Medicine, Pedagogical, National Economy, Law and Soviet Development, Chemical Technology.

[10][11] In 2008, the activist Franak Viačorka, a member of Partyja BPF, was expelled from the Journalism Faculty of the Belarusian State University and forced into military service.

[13] In 2009, the BSU Law Faculty expelled the student Tatsiana Shaputska, a member of the Malady Front, after her participation in the Civil Society Forum of the Eastern Partnership in Brussels.

[citation needed] According to reports by human rights organizations, politically motivated expulsions from the Belarusian State University continued also after the EU lifted most of its sanctions against Belarus in 2014.

[16] According to reports by media and human rights organizations, many students of the Belarusian State University are being forced to vote early at elections and referendums, which is considered an essential part of centralized electoral fraud in Belarus.

No election or referendum in Belarus has been recognized by the United States, the European Union, or the OSCE as free and fair since the mid-1990s.

[28] In 2021, four previously expelled BSU students were sentenced to 2.5 years in prison for protesting in the university and "disruption of the educational process".

[31] Aliaksandr Danilevich, a university professor and a member of the Court of Arbitration for Sport, was arrested by Belarusian police on May 20, 2022.

About 65% of housing provided by the university consists of rooms shared by 3-4 persons with a common kitchen and sanitary arrangements.

[citation needed] In 2009 approximately 60% of the secondary school graduates from the country's regions were accepted for the full-time budget form of education.