Obafemi Awolowo University

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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, and was renamed Obafemi Awolowo University in May 1987 in honor of Obafemi Awolowo (1909-1987), the first Nigerian premier of the Western Region of Nigeria who was also the university's founding statesman and first Chancellor.

The motto of Obafemi Awolowo University "For Learning and Culture" is apt as the cosmogenic legend of the Yoruba describes Ile-Ife as the center of the world, ascribed in Yoruba mythology, the enviable role of being the site of the earth's first solid ground in a watery primordial planet. The university has established a reputation for providing a unique and top quality liberal arts education that stretches its student beyond the bounds of their specific academic disciplines. The university takes pride in its well-rounded graduates, now totaling over 55,000, who are making their mark in Nigeria as well as across the globe.^{[citation needed]}

The alumni and faculty proudly describes Obafemi Awolowo University as "Great Ife". The term is commonly accepted by others when they do not feel that their loyalty to their own alma mater is compromised.^{[citation needed]}

The university has active 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.

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 currently has 13 faculties, and two colleges - the Postgraduate College and the College of Health Sciences, administered in more than 60 departments.

Over the years, this institution has been plagued by a series of recurrent strikes, which has given the school a bad name. The problem was addressed by the University Council through the birth of two semester sessions (the Harmattan semester and Summer semester). Strikes however have continued.