Rifat Hadžiselimović completed secondary education in Banja Luka after which in 1962 he enrolled at the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics in Sarajevo. He graduated as a Biology teacher in 1966 and completed his Masters in Biology (Anthropology) in 1971 at the Faculty of Science and Mathematics, University of Zagreb, Croatia. His Master thesis was entitled "Historical aspect of the change of relative frequency of two allelogens in human populations". He completed his PhD in Biology in 1976 at the Faculty of Science, University of Sarajevo on the subject of "The Genetics of ABH antigens secretion in the population of Bosnia and Herzegovina".