Get Guardian on GoogleThe Vice-Chancellor of Lagos State University (LASU), Prof. Ayodeji Badejo, has emphasised the need for the institution to move beyond being admired for its large student population to becoming indispensable to Lagos State’s development.
Badejo gave the charge at her inaugural Senate meeting, where she outlined her vision for the institution and called for collective commitment to academic excellence, institutional unity and measurable impact.
She also acknowledged the contributions of her predecessors, both to the university’s stability, disciplined academic calendar and growing reputation as a first-choice institution for candidates across the country
Describing the Senate as the place where the university thinks, Badejo said she was appearing before its members not merely as an administrator but as a colleague whose professional life had largely been shaped by LASU.
The university’s spokesperson, Ademola Adekoya, noted that the vice-chancellor particularly appealed to senior professors who had stopped attending Senate meetings to return to the chamber, participate actively in deliberations and freely challenge the administration whenever necessary.
She stressed that the experience of senior academics remained essential to the university’s development, especially as a new generation of scholars emerged across its faculties.
“A Senate without its elders is a Senate condemned to repeat its mistakes,” she said, urging younger academics to work alongside experienced colleagues to combine fresh ideas with institutional memory.
Reflecting on LASU’s establishment in 1983 by the administration of the late Governor Lateef Jakande, the vice-chancellor said the university had fulfilled much of its founding promise in terms of size and reach.
She disclosed that 84,326 candidates had chosen LASU as their first-choice institution in the current admission cycle, making it the most preferred university in Nigeria for the second consecutive year.
She added that the institution currently serves more than 85,000 students across its campuses in Ojo, Ikeja, Epe, and Badagry, with almost all its academic programmes fully accredited.
Badejo added that these achievements must translate into greater institutional value and impact, rather than merely serve as measures of physical expansion and institutional growth.
According to her, while LASU had earned recognition for its admission figures, accredited programmes and infrastructure, it had yet to achieve comparable recognition for its outputs and measurable contributions to society.
She identified low research income, which she said remained in millions when it should be in billions, inadequate classrooms and laboratories relative to student enrollment, and uncertainty among some staff members over their verified entitlements as areas requiring urgent attention.
Badejo maintained that identifying the university’s shortcomings should be seen as an act of institutional courage rather than an accusation against any individual or group.
She further stressed the need for all LASU campuses to operate as one cohesive institution, with achievements and policies that endure beyond the tenure of any particular administration.
