DAV College, Nabua and DAV Girls College, Samabula were one unit of the DAV College that was established in 1952 at Arya Mandir, Samabula under the able Headship of Pt. Ami Chandra Vidyalankar to accommodate the secondary education needs of students of Indian origin. DAV connotes appreciation of the founder of Arya Samaj on 10 April 1875 in Bombay, the most venerable Swami Dayanand Saraswati (D), the need to learn foreign language (A) and the need to maintain Vedic culture and tradition (V) in a diverse environment. In full DAV stands for Dayanand-Anglo-Vedic.

With the influx of students the College split into two and the girls wing was moved in 1952 to be attached at the Arya Kanya Pathshala (now Arya Samaj Primary School), Samabula and the boys wing was moved in 1954 to the World War II barracks that occupied the present site.

The DAV College Nabua is a large mainstream multiracial urban secondary school catering for Forms 3 to 7.