Authorities of the University of Lagos, Akoka, have disclosed plans to make the university self-sufficient in funding.
The Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Oluwatoyin Ogundipe, gave the indication while giving account of his stewardship in his first year in office.
Ogundipe, who assumed office in November 2017 as the 12th Vice Chancellor of the institution, said the management conceived the idea of developing a strong business partnership that would generate funds for the university and open opportunities for research and internship for the university’s students.
The VC said, “It is my belief that the university can no longer operate in silos, thus, we have taken trips to meet with agencies, foreign governments and international organisations as well as universities to create collaborations that can move the university forward.
“For instance, we visited the Finnish, Chinese, German and French embassies in Abuja to share our vision with them and seek their support in actualising the vision.”
While presenting his achievements to the university’s senate, he said, “I believe this last one year has served as an opportunity to take necessary steps to attain this lofty goal.”
On research grant, Ogundipe said there was a strong understanding that research was one of the core obligations of a university, and the realisation that Government or the university alone could not adequately fund research.
“That is why we have, in the last one year, attempted to raise awareness about the need for our faculty members to apply and attract more research grants to the university. This is already yielding significant results as a total of about N1.25 billion was attracted as research grant by academic staff of the university in the period under review,” he said.
He also revealed that, to enhance research visibility, the university collaborated with Vitafoam Nigeria. This, he said, led to the donation of a Polyurethane Laboratory worth over
N20m.
“We also received some equipment worth $200,000 from the United States to support research in the central laboratory. The next four years will, therefore, witness accelerated pace in our drive for research funding,” he explained.
Listing other achievements, the vice-chancellor explained that the Tertiary Education Trust Fund had adjudged the institution’s entrepreneur drive as the best in universities in Nigeria, saying, “That is the reason an entrepreneurship board is now in place with over half of its members from the
industry.
“We are also taking advantage of our location in the cosmopolitan city of Lagos to attract industries and government agencies to recognise needs of industries and to provide innovation solutions.”
Other achievements within the year under review, according to him, include the establishment of the university’s Business School, which will commence soon, introduction of new programmes such as the Bsc. Transportation, to increase the available programmes in the Distance Learning Institute, thus increasing the student population. Others include setting up of a micro finance bank for the university, which will not only be a source of revenue, but will also assist members of staff in meeting some of their obligations.
