…attracted N4bn research grants in 2024
The University of Lagos (UNILAG), Akoka has disclosed the institution will be graduating 16,409 students in its 55th convocation, 9,684 will receive first degrees and diplomas while 6,659 will be awarded postgraduate degrees and 66 graduate from the business school.
Folasade Ogunsola, the vice-chancellor of the University of Lagos, made this known on Wednesday, January 8, 2025, during a pre-convocation press conference of the university, when she also revealed that 561 students obtained first class.
“Our two overall best-graduating students are shared by two students from the Faculty of Science, Department of Cell Biology and Genetics with a perfect score of 5.0 – Damilare Adebakin, and Samuel Badekale. The best-graduating student from the humanities is Olamide Emida from the Faculty of Management Sciences in the Department of Accounting with a CGPA of 4.95.
“The overall best Ph.D. Thesis award for this year goes to Adetoun Akitoye, who obtained her Ph.D. in Chemistry while the best Ph.D. thesis (Humanities) is Eniola Ladipo,” she said.
A breakdown of the results shows that 561 students graduated with first-class degrees and distinctions, 3,916 obtained second-class upper (2:1) degrees, while 3,763 got second-class lower (2:2) degrees.
Besides, 1,143 students graduated with third class, 78 had passed degrees, while 223 students had unclassified degrees.
Ogunsola explained that the institution has put in place measures to guide against a repeat stampede occurrence noticed during last year’s convocation when students vandalized UNLAG’s buses and other property in their uncultured quest to get their graduation gowns.
“The stampede was unnecessarily, however, this year, we have made available more gowns. Besides, there is in place an arrangement where students can get their gowns delivered to them on request,” she explained.
Speaking on some of the remarkable achievements of the university in the academic year, the vice-chancellor revealed that UNILAG attracted research grants worth about N4 billion in the year 2024 and that over N2 billion of the grants came through the institution’s College of Medicine.
This domiciliation of the Med-Africa GMP Laboratory, he said is the first time an institution is privileged to domicile such a manufacturing firm in entire West Africa.
“One of our more significant achievements as a university in 2024 was the domiciliation of the Med-Africa GMP Laboratory. The first good manufacturing practice GMP Laboratory was built within a university in West Africa and is currently domiciled at the Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Lagos. This project is funded by Med-Africa Foundation Scotch Plains, New Jersey 07076, USA.
“The laboratory was officially opened and commissioned on May 26, 2024 and is based on a grant obtained by Margaret Ilomuanya, an associate professor, Department of Pharmaceutics and Pharmaceutical Technology in collaboration with Centre for Biomedical Research Population Council New York, USA to develop freeze dried vaginal inserts for HIV prevention. It is valued at $450,000 and only the third on the continent domiciled within an institution,” the vice-chancellor said.
The vice-chancellor also explained that in 2024, the university became one unipod in the TIMBUKTOO Initiative of the United Nations Development Programme Regional Bureau for Africa (UNDP Africa). Ogunsola said the official ground-breaking ceremony of the UNILAG’s unipod was performed on Wednesday, July 10, 2024, and that it is one out of the seven to be spread across different universities in Nigeria.
Moreover, she said the artificial intelligence (AI)-themed facility is expected to serve as a hub for the hatchery of creativity and innovation among students of the university.
“The design stage has been concluded and the selection and construction of the project is expected to be completed by the end of the second quarter of 2025.
“In 2024, we entered Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) with 14 universities across Africa, Europe, and the Americas to foster collaboration in various academic areas such as entrepreneurship, AI, food security, robotics urban renewal, health diagnostics, and education, among others. This year in furtherance of our drive to increase food security we partnered with the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) concerned with the fortification of Nigerian foods with essential nutrients,” she said.
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