My Achievements As UNILAG’s VC- Ogundipe

Prof. Oluwatoyin Ogundipe, who became Vice Chancellor of the University of Lagos over four years ago, highlights some of his achievements in office, with only about 10 more months to the end of his tenure

TET Fund

“In 2020, 16 of our staff received N419,400,000 as a total grant from the 2020 TETFund NRF. We believe that this steady growth in research activities is precipitated by the approaches we are adopting to encourage our staff to showcase their talents,” the VC explained. “It is, therefore, no surprise that the University of Lagos was adjudged as the best tertiary institution in the South-West on TETFund research grant utilisation.”​

Internationalization of higher education

“The University of Lagos is one of the co-founders of a consortium of universities under the European Universities Initiative led by University of Bayreuth, Germany. There are 12 European universities in the consortium and our university is the only African university among the founding universities.

“Our students took advantage of this internationalisation drive, and a student at the Chemical Engineering Department won the fully funded prestigious DOW Chemicals Dow Innovators Invention Programme- a nine months fully funded internship programme in Switzerland,” stressed the UNILAG vice-chancellor. “Also, five students from the university won the three months African Leadership Internship programme with the Bank of America in 2021.”

Infrastructure

“The infrastructural base of the university has recorded a quantum leap between 2018 and now. During every convocation, we go around campuses commissioning different infrastructural projects achieved through the P3P programme.”

The projects include the remodelling of the main foyer of the Senate House; the upgrade of the Lagoon front fountain and donation of a National History Museum; the NITDA Innovation Hub Building; TETFund APC Building; vertical extension of Faculty of Law; remodelling of the HRDC Building; the Social Science 500-seater lecture theatre; the ongoing international students’ hostel, etc.

“We are mindful of our location within the slums and the implication of this for our staff and students. We, therefore, took proactive measures to ensure our campus is safe and secure from intruders and miscreants”.

“Furthermore, we partnered Bionomics Nigeria Limited to provide full CCTV coverage of our entire campus to ensure security of our environment and safety”.