HISTORY

Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria is a government-owned and operated Nigerian university, The university is located in the ancient city of Ile-Ife, Osun State, Nigeria. The university was founded in 1962 as the University of Ife by the regional government of Western Nigeria led by late Chief Samuel Ladoke Akintola and was renamed Obafemi Awolowo University in May 12, 1987 in honor of Chief Obafemi Awolowo (1909â€“1987), the first Nigerian premier of the Western Region of Nigeria.

The decision to establish the then University of Ife by the ruling Action Group party of the Western Region of Nigeria was in protest at the recommendations of the Ashby commission . The first Nigerian university was established in 1948 at Ibadan, in the Western region as an external college of the university of London. However, the needs of the country, Nigeria ( then a British colony) far outstripped the productivity of the only university.

In particular the University College at Ibadan had no faculty of engineering or technology, no law school, no pharmacy school or management training abilities. The Ashby commission, set up by the British, was to review tertiary educational needs of the soon to be independent nation of Nigeria.

In 1959, the Ashby commission recommended additional (regional) universities in the northern and eastern regions of Nigeria, and another Federal university in the Lagos protectorate, but none in the more educationally advanced western region which also had a 'free and universal primary education' program. The government of the Western region did not want to rely on the Federal universities or those of other regions to admit its populous secondary school leavers.

The protest foundation of the university at Ife, was not only in rebuttal to the perceived politicization of higher educational opportunities in Nigeria and the western region, but was also designed to fill the gaps in the manpower needs of Nigeria.

Ife started the first Faculty of Pharmacy in West Africa, the first Department of Chemical Engineering and the first Electronics component in addition to Electrical engineering. Its medical school started with an integrated curriculum and community orientation ( which was later adopted by the World Health Organization) and a compulsory baccalaureat ( BSc honors) before entrance to the clinical school, but this was later jettisoned.

The first Vice-Chancellor of the new university was Professor Oladele Ajose (MD, PhD) a Glasgow University graduate and Nigeria's first professor of public health recruited from the University of Ibadan. He served from 1962â€“1966, until political upheavals and military coups led him to be replaced in 1966. The second Vice-Chancllor was Professor HA Oluwasanmi who served from 1966-1975.

Nigeria's only Nobel prize winner (in literature) Wole Soyinka, served as Professor of Comparative Literature at the University of Ife, and is an Emeritus Professor of Dramatic Arts in the university. The motto of the university is " For learning and culture". However, owing to the rigorous and exacting academic standards, students have parodied this motto to "for learning and torture".

In terms of research productivity, Ife is ranked as the most productive university in Nigeria by the National Universities Commission ( NUC) and by Shangai University World rankings as it relates to Africa. Ife has attracted the young Nigerian students because for a long time it had no lower age limit for admission.

Enrollment is about 12,000 for undergraduates and 6,000 for graduate studies of different kinds. The major halls of undergraduate residences for males are Fajuyi, Awolowo, Angola and E.T.F. For women, halls of residence are Moremi, Ladoke Akintola, Alumni and Mozambique. A postgraduate hall (Muritala Muhammed Hall) also exists.

The Ife campus is regarded as "Africa's most beautiful campus", the university is endowed with beautiful architecture and an eye catching landscape built on about 5,000 acres of a total of 13,000 acres of the land owned by the university.
The university has alumni groups outside Nigeria, the foremost being the Great Ife Alumni Association of the United States of America, headquartered in Houston, Texas, which spearheaded the now traditional biennial reunions of the alumni for the primary purpose of raising funds for the development of the alma mater.

Academic Activities/Faculties/Courses Offered

Obafemi Awolowo University offers undergraduate and post-graduate programmes in various fields of specialization spanning the humanities, the arts, the natural sciences, the social sciences, the medical sciences, engineering and technology.
The university has 13 faculties, and two colleges - the Postgraduate College and the College of Health Sciences, administered in more than 60 departments.

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