University of Ibadan

University of Ibadan

Former names	University College Ibadan
Motto	Recte Sapere Fons = To think straight is the fount (of knowledge)
Type	Public
Established	1948
Chairman	Chief Wole Olanipekun
Vice-Chancellor	Abel Idowu Olayinka
Students	33, 481[1]
Location	Ibadan, Oyo, Nigeria
Website	http://www.ui.edu.ng/

The University of Ibadan(UI) is the oldest and one of the most prestigious Nigerian universities,^[2][3] and is located five miles (8 kilometres) from the centre of the major city of Ibadan in Western Nigeria.

Besides the College of Medicine, there are now ten other faculties: Arts , Science, Agriculture and Forestry, Social Sciences, Education, Veterinary Medicine, Technology, Law, Public Health and Dentistry. The University has residential and sports facilities for staff and students on campus, as well as separate botanical and zoological gardens.

History

Kenneth Onwuka Dike University Library

The origins of the university are in Yaba College, founded in 1932 in Yaba, Lagos as the first tertiary educational institute in Nigeria. Yaba College was transferred to Ibadan, becoming the University College of Ibadan, in 1948.^[4] The university was founded on its own site on 17 November 1948. In late 1963, on the university playing-fields, with a celebration marked by talking drums, the Rt. Hon. Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, first Prime Minister of independent Nigeria, became the first Chancellor of its independent university. The first Nigerian vice chancellor of the university was Kenneth Dike, after whom the University of Ibadan's library is named.

Administration

The current principal members of the university administration are:^[5]

Faculties

In August 2011 Ruqayyah Ahmed Rufa'i, the Nigerian Minister of Education announced that the University of Ibadan would host the Nigerian node of the Pan-African University, the Institute of Earth and Life Sciences.^[6]

Entrance into the university is rigorous, most especially into the College of Medicine.

Centres

• The Distance Learning Centre

Units

Kenneth Onwuka Dike Library, University of Ibadan (old postcard)

• The Registry
• The Bursary
• Careers Placement and Counselling Unit
• Foreign Students Unit
• The Sports Council
• The Library
• The Computing Centre
• The Press
• The Bookshop
• The Botanical Garden
• The Zoological Garden
• University Media Centre, which houses the campus radio station, DIAMOND 101.1 FM.
• The Abadina Media Resource Centre
• Advancement Centre
• The University Health Services
• Works and Maintenance
• Academic Planning
• Internal Audit

Halls of Residence

The university is primarily residential with magnificent halls of residence for male and female students. There is provision for the accommodation of post-graduate students. There are Internet cafés, Knowledge Hubs, cafeterias, Laundry Centres, Mini Marts, Press Boards, common-rooms, gymnasia (in some halls), kitchenettes, etc. There is impressive water and electricity supply. Electricity supply is also augmented by the inverter system. Football, table tennis and lawn tennis are sports often played and watched by students. The Halls of Residence are semi-autonomous. Each Hall of Residence has a Management Committee, which is responsible for matters of general policy for the social, cultural and intellectual activities of the Hall. The Management Committee is given powers to arrange its own social, cultural and intellectual activities designed to preserve, develop and enrich the traditions of the Hall and make life in the Hall generally interesting and worthwhile. The Management Committee consists of the Hall Master/Mistress, the Hall Warden and Assistant Wardens, the Hall Supervisor and the Hall Executives, which consists of students who are elected every session by the students of each hall to handle internal student matters, as well as act as an intermediary between the Hall Administration and the generality of students. Accommodation in the Halls range from 1 to 4 per room. The halls are listed below:

• Mellanby Hall (male, undergraduate). Location: to the North of the University Court. The first residential hall in the university, named after Kenneth Mellanby, the first Principal of the University College, Ibadan (1947–53). Mellanby has a characteristically cool and serene ambience. It was formally opened on 17 November 1952, and has a capacity for well over 400 students.The hall is essentially the smallest in the school, possessing four blocks- A,B,C and D. The A block is primarily for freshmen while the D block houses students in their final year. The hall is the most centrally located, and hence sees a great daily traffic of people.

It has a cafeteria, a common room for relaxation, a small football field and a volleyball court. Th hall also has clubs such as The Literary and Debating Club and a press organization. The Mellanby Hall Press Organization is arguably one of the best in the school, and has in recent years won the award for the best press organization, awarded by The Union of Campus Journalists, the school's highest press body.

• Queen Elizabeth II Hall (female, undergraduate). Location: along Oduduwa Road. The first female hall, it is named after Queen Elizabeth II, who visited the University of Ibadan in February, 1956 and performed the formal opening ceremony of the Hall. It has a capacity of over 650 students.
• Tedder Hall (male, undergraduate). Location: to the west of the University Court and adjacent to Mellanby Hall
• Sultan Bello Hall (male, undergraduate)
• Kuti Hall (male, undergraduate)
• Queen Idia Hall (female, undergraduate)
• Obafemi Awolowo Hall (female, undergraduate).

Represents the biggest hall in the University of Ibadan and, arguably, the biggest in the rest of west Africa.

• Nnamdi Azikiwe Hall (male, undergraduate).

Commonly known as Zik Hall, and its occupants as Zikites. It accommodates 999 students every session and it is normally referred to as the Heartbeat of the University of Ibadan. It is also known as the Baluba Republic and shares a long standing rivalry with Independence Hall. It is located on El-Kanemi Road just before Independence Hall. Zik Hall is well known for its "Aroism"-an avenue where Zikites make gest of themselves and other non-residents especially females.

• Independence Hall (male, undergraduate).

Location: at the end of El-Kanemi Road. "The Republic of Katanga", as it is fondly called, was formally opened in 1961, in commemoration of Nigeria's attainment of Independence on 1 October 1960. Members are known as "Katangites". It is also regarded as the "Only Living Hall In UI", in reference to the fact that it is named after Nigeria's independence, which is still "living". It has a capacity of about 1000 students.

• Tafawa Balewa Hall (mixed, postgraduate).
• Alexander Brown Hall (mixed, clinical medical, dental and physiotherapy students).

Location: in the College of Medicine campus at the University College Hospital, Ibadan

• Abdulsalam Abubakar Hall (mixed, postgraduate).

The designs of the halls are deliberately not identical. For example, the older halls - Mellanby, Tedder, Kuti, Sultan Bello and Queen Elizabeth II halls - were designed by Maxwell Fry and Jane Drew who, in appreciation of their contribution to the physical development of the University were honoured with honorary degrees in 1965. Messrs Watkins Gray and Partners designed Alexander Brown Hall as a part of the overall design of the University College Hospital Complex. The two undergraduate halls, Independence and Nnamdi Azikiwe Halls, were designed by Messrs Design Group (Nigeria) Ltd. Obafemi Awolowo Hall was designed by Allied Group of Architects, while Tafawa Balewa and Idia Halls were designed by Messrs Aderele-Omisore-Adebanjo Associates. The Federal Ministry of Works designed the Abdusalami Abubakar Hall. Students are usually very passionate about their respective halls.

Notable alumni

See also Category:University of Ibadan alumni

• Ladipo Ayodeji Banjo
• Chinua Achebe, author of Things Fall Apart^[7][8]
• Adiele Afigbo, Nigerian Historian, the first person to receive a doctoral degree in History from a Nigerian university
• Claude Ake, Erudite Professor of Political Economy, International scholar and Social crusader
• Emeka Anyaoku, former Commonwealth Secretary-General^[9]
• Michael Omolewa, former President of UNESCO General Conference and Ambassador of Nigeria to UNESCO^[10]
• Eddie Mbadiwe, Member of the House of Representative
• Kayode Fayemi, Fmr Governor of Ekiti State, Min of Solid Minerals
• J. P. Clark^[7][8][11]
• Amadi Ikwechegh^[12]
• Epaphras Denga Ndaitwah^[13]
• Christopher Okigbo^[7][8][14]
• Gamaliel Onosode^[15]
• Wole Soyinka, winner of the 1986 Nobel Prize in Literature^[7][8]
• Grace Alele-Williams^[16]
• William Kumuyi, Founder and General Superintendent of Deeper Christian Life Ministry^[17][18]
• Ken Saro-Wiwa^[19][20]
• Olufunmilayo Olopade^[21][22]
• Martin I Uhomoibhi^[23]
• Farida Mzamber Waziri^[24]
• Niyi Osundare^[25]
• Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani^[25][26]
• Jacob Ade Ajayi
• John Omoniyi Abiri
• Kole Omotosho^[27]
• Abiola Irele^[28]
• Elechi Amadi^[7][8]
• Stephen Adebanji Akintoye^[29]
• Segun Toyin Dawodu, MD, JD, MBA, LL.M, MS a physician, attorney, academic, and entrepreneur who established the first website^[30] on socio-political issues of Nigeria.
• Sadique Abubakar, Chief of Air Staff
• Kayode Are, former National Security Adviser & former Director General of the State Security Service
• Akinyinka Omigbodun^[31]
• Alexander Animalu, BSc (1962, Mathematics), PhD (1965, Mathematics); Emeritus Professor of Theoretical Physics; Nigerian National Order of Merit Winner (2000); Director General, National Mathematical Centre, Abuja (1999-2001); President, Nigerian Academy of Science (2001-2002); Researcher, Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge (1962-1965); Research Scientist, MIT Lincoln Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA (1972-1976); Research Associate, Stanford University, USA (1966-1967)

Notable faculty

• Wole Soyinka^[32]
• Fabian Udekwu Professor of Surgery, first Nigerian cardiothoracic surgeon
• Jacob Ade Ajayi, Professor of History^[33]
• Michael Omolewa, Professor of History and Adult Education
• F. V. Atkinson, mathematician
• Christine Hamill, mathematician
• Niyi Osundare
• Olumbe Bassir, founding member of Biochemistry and Microbiology departments^[34]
• Abel Idowu Olayinka
• Beatrice Aboyade, librarian
• Isaac Folorunso Adewole
• Grace Oladunni Taylor, biochemist, first African to win a L'Oréal-UNESCO Award for Women in Science and second female inducted into the Nigerian Academy of Science

Notes

References

• Damtew Teferra; et al. (2003). African Higher Education: An International Reference Handbook. Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0-253-34186-0. 

Further reading

• Tekena Tamuno (1981). Ibadan Voices: Ibadan University in Transition. Ibadan University Press. ISBN 978-978-121-109-6. 

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to University of Ibadan.

• Official webpage
• Forum webpage

Coordinates: 7°26′30″N 3°54′00″E / 7.44167°N 3.90000°E / 7.44167; 3.90000