University of Lagos

The University of Lagos, popularly known as UNILAG, is a public research university located in Lagos, Nigeria and was founded in 1962. UNILAG is one of the first generation universities in Nigeria and is ranked among the top universities in the world in major education publications. The university presently has three campuses in the mainland of Lagos. Whereas two of its campuses are located at Yaba (the main campus in Akoka and the recently created campus at the former school of radiography), it's college of medicine is located at Idi-Araba, Surulere. Its main campus is largely surrounded by the Lagos lagoon and has 802 acres of land. The University of Lagos currently admits over 9,000 undergraduate students annually and enrolls over 57,000 students. A visitation panel, created to look into the affairs of the university between 2016 and 2020 detected cases of financial abuses from top officials and ordered the university to close accounts with commercial banks. On 7 October 2022, Folasade Ogunsola was appointed vice chancellor of the University of Lagos making her the first female to attain such height in the University. History UNILAG was founded in 1962, two years after the independence of Nigeria from Britain. It was one of the first five universities created in the country, now known as "first generation universities". Eni Njoku was appointed as the first black vice-chancellor of the university in 1962, and he remained in office till 1965 when he was replaced by Saburi Biobaku. However, due to controversy surrounding his appointment, Saburi was stabbed by Kayode Adams, a student radical who believed Biobaku's appointment was unfair and ethnically motivated. On 29 May 2012, the then President of Nigeria, Goodluck Jonathan, proposed to rename the University of Lagos to Moshood Abiola University in honour of Moshood Abiola, who died in jail as a political prisoner in 1998. The proposed name change became a subject of protests from students and alumni. The proposal was consequently jettisoned as the Nigerian federal government gave in to the protests incited by the proposed name change.