The establishment of Tezpur University is considered to be one of the outcomes of the Assam Accord, along with the establishment of Assam University and Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati.
Tezpur University was established, by an Act of Parliament, in 1994. The then Prime Minister of India, P. V. Narasimha Rao chaired the opening of the University.
Initially, the University operated from the premises of the Darrang College, in Tezpur. Land was acquired at Napaam, a suburb of Tezpur, about 15 kilometers east, of 242 acres (0.98 square kilo-meters), and the premises shifted.
Kalaguru Bishnuprasad Rava (Rabha) donated an ancestral estate of 2500 bigha land received from the British government in favour of the peasants.