Princess Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire, the Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on Sustainable Development Goals has pledged to build and equip a modern 750-seat capacity lecture theatre on the Ojo Main Campus of Lagos State University LASU).
The president aids said the gesture by the president’s aide is help cushion the effect of space deficit facing the institution given arising from the up jerk of the admission quota born of the hike in admission seekers’ subscription to the Africa Centre of Excellence which has become the first choice of many in recent times.
The former Deputy Governor of Lagos State in the Raji Fashola administration made the pledge while delivering her keynote address at the opening of LASU’s 4th Research and Development Fair on Tuesday, September 6, 2022.
In the address, Princess Adefulire-Orelope gave a nod to the theme of the year’s fair: “Repositioning the Nigerian University System For Global Relevance and Competitiveness In Learning, Research, Innovation And Technological Transfer”, saying it is “In line with the spirit and intent of SDG-4 on inclusive equitable quality education and promoting lifelong learning opportunities for all.”
Impressed by the ongoing developmental strides in LASU, Orelope-Adefulire further expressed her readiness to always be of assistance to the university both at personal and official levels.
The Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Ibiyemi Ibilola Olatunji-Bello disclosed to the barrage of participants at the event that Princess Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire had also earlier built and donated an ICT hall in the university which is already awaiting official opening soon.
Meanwhile, Professor Ibiyemi Ibilola Olatunji-Bello, the Vice Chancellor of the university has disclosed that a N5m research grant is in the offing to enhance multidisciplinary researches towards hitting her administration’s target of clinching the number One university in West Africa before her tenure elapses.
“We have in last few years intensified effort in research and innovation culminating in the creation of the Directorate of Research Management and Innovation that is organising this research fair. The Senate of this University is instituting a N5m research grant for cutting edge multidisciplinary research in the University,” Olatunji-Bello stated.
Olatunji-Bello said the theme of the two-day event which was “Repositioning the Nigeria University System for Global Relevance and Competitiveness in Learning, Research, Innovation and Technology Transfer” remains apt even today in the face of the not too impressive showing of Nigerian Universities in the recent global rankings.
However, she reiterated her commitment to making research continuously of paramount importance to the institution.
She emphasised: “We want research to maintain its paramount position in Lagos State University as it is expected in every world-class institution of Higher learning. Yet, we have a lot to do. We are currently addressing ownership of research outcomes by instituting an Intellectual Property Policy for the university.
“My hope is that at the end of the Fair, actionable blueprints aimed at repositioning the Nigerian University System for economic prosperity and global relevance would be developed especially in these challenging and critical times of global economic melt-down and recession.”
She added that statistics point to an urgent need for repositioning the universities.
The Vice-Chancellor while referring to the 2022 webometrics ranking regretted the absence of any Nigerian University in the list of the top 1000 in the world, even as she noted that the highest ranked university is the University of Ibadan at 1,207.
She revealed that in the last three to four decades, the Nigerian University System has been saddled with numerous perennial and increasing monumental challenges that include but are not limited to poor infrastructural facilities, inadequate funding, brain drain, outdated curriculum and inadequate research facilities, recurrent industrial actions, governance deficits as well as corruption just to mention a few.
Delivering his deeply-researched paper titled: Bridging The Gap Between The University And Industry On Knowledge Economy earlier, Prof. Emeritus Olufemi Adebisi Bamiro, the guest speaker at the fair, declared that the current global economy does not pay you based on what you know any longer; rather, you are engaged and paid based on what you can do with what you know.
The former VC of Nigeria’s premier university (the University of Ibadan) also posited that the fourth industrial revolution is driven by Artificial Intelligence, Information Communication Technology (ICT) the Innovation.
He also tutored that key players in a knowledge economy are Researchers, Innovators, Businesses and Investors.
Buttressing the aptness of the theme of the Fair, Prof Bamiro who is on record as the first Professor of Mechanical Engineering in Nigeria reiterated that the conventional three-thronged duty of the Ivory Tower is Teaching, Research and Community Service.
