Rizvi spent the early part of his student life in Faujdarhat Cadet College.

[6] In 1972, he went to Trinity College, Oxford as the second Rhodes scholar from Bangladesh (the first being his senior fellow at Faujdarhat)[7] and garnered a D.Phil.

[2][8] Rizvi was at St. Antony's College, Oxford as the Alfred Beit Junior Lecturer and senior associate member from 1976 to 1978.

[6] In 1992, he collaborated with the Royal Institute of International Affairs to organize a high-level Anglo-Iranian Roundtable in order to facilitate direct dialogue between senior officials of the two countries.

[9] In the same year he taught as Arnold Bernhard Visiting Professor of History at Williams College, Massachusetts.