The Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS) started as the Dar es salaam medical school in 1963. The school then transformed into the faculty of medicine of the university of Dar es salaam that in 1991 was upgraded and became a college–the Muhimbili University College of Health Sciences (MUHAS).

In 1996, the Faculty of Medicine that was upgraded to a constituent College of the University of Dar es Salaam, with the aim of nurturing it to a full-fledged university later on was merged with the Muhimbili hospital to create the Muhimbili Medical Centre (MMC).

Over the years MUHAS made significant achievements in terms of increased student enrollment and development of several new academic programmes. The Parliament Act No 9 of 1991 that established MUHAS was repealed in 2005 through the universities Act no 7 of 2005.Subsequently, in 2007 Article 1 of the Charter of Incorporation established MUHAS; in line with the Universities act no 7 of 2005.

The objectives of the University are the advancement of knowledge, diffusion and extension of technology and learning, the provision of higher education and research and, so far as is consistent with those objectives, the nurturing of the intellectual, aesthetic, social and moral growth of the students at the University.