University of Ibadan and postgraduate school Nigeria
University of Ibadan and postgraduate school Nigeria.….The University of Ibadan was founded in 1948 as a College of London University, with 104 students spread among three Faculties: Arts, Science and Medicine. It became an autonomous, degree-granting institution in 1962. Today, the University has a total enrolment of about 20,000 students shared among the following faculties: Arts, Science, Basic Medical Sciences, Clinical Sciences, Dentistry, Public Health, Pharmacy, Agriculture and Forestry, the Social Sciences, Education, Veterinary Medicine, Technology, Law as well as an Institute of African Studies, Institute of Education, Institute of Peace and Strategic Studies,Africa Regional Centre for Information Science, Institute of Advance Medical Research and Training And the Centre for Literacy Training and Development in Africa. The enrolment of postgraduate students used to be about 40% but it is now over 50%.
The University of Ibadan over the years has been highly ranked in Nigeria and in Africa. For instance, the university was ranked by the National Universities Commission as the Overall Number 1 in its 2004 Ranking of Nigerian Universities. Ibadan was also ranked No 1 in Dentistry, No 1 in Medicine/Health Sciences; No 1 in Pharmacy, No 1 in the Sciences, No 1 in Veterinary Medicine; No 2 in the Social Sciences, and No 3 among Research Universities. Moreover, Ibadan was ranked No 1 in PhD Graduate Output. Recent Global ranking of Universities places Ibadan the 493rd in the world and 4th in Africa. We are still moving on. Postgraduate programmes at Ibadan have been so successful for a variety of reasons. These include:
- Financial autonomy
The funds released from postgraduate students at the University of Ibadan are ploughed back to service postgraduate training and research by allocating the greater percentage of such fees into the academic departments and the Postgraduate College.
- In order to encourage postgraduate students endowed with outstanding research potentials to undertake full-time research leading to a PhD of the University of Ibadan, the Postgraduate College has established two schemes, namely:
(a) The University of Ibadan Postgraduate College Scholarship Scheme
(b) The University of Ibadan Postgraduate College Teaching and Research
Assistantship Scheme.
- Funding Support to Academic Units for the Publication of Learned Journals no less than 15 academic journals are supported annually.
- Maintenance of an active academic environment through the Interdisciplinary Research Discourse Series.
- A comprehensive review of the regulations governing higher degrees. After extensive discussions and deliberations by various sub and Ad-Hoc Committees of the Curriculum Committee, Executive Committee and the Board of the Postgraduate College, Senate approved “The 2004 Regulations Governing Higher Degrees” in the University of Ibadan (ISBN 978-37883-0-2),the document was amended in 2014.The entire postgraduate curriculum is now being reviewed and revamped taking into cognisance recent trends and developments in the various disciplines offered at the University.
- Workshops on Aspects of Research Methodologies are organized on a regular basis for postgraduate students and teachers: such workshop focus on issues which include the following:
- Grant making;
- Conceptual frameworks in Research;
- Use of Statistics and ICT;
- Writing a PhD thesis;
- Writing academic papers;
- Development of a unique University of Ibadan Manual of Style (UIMS);
- Ethics in Research.
- Research publications.
- Information Communication Technology Support to all the academic units (Departments, Faculties, Institutes, Centres and the College of Medicine) to aid in teaching, research and publications.
The University has three postgraduate halls of residence with the capacity of 2,800 bed spaces. Most of these halls lie within walking distance University Library of learning facilities. Two more are to be constructed and completed next year
The University houses an Arts Theatre and a resident performing company which, all the year round, produces a wide variety of plays generally available in the town (with a population of over two million people, the largest in black Africa). The university has several sports facilities including the sports complex which has soccer, hockey, cricket, basketball, volleyball pitches, and a gymnasium. Courts are provided for tennis and squash. There is also an Olympic-size swimming pool. The campus is well-laid out with clear inscriptions on roads and monuments. It is a habitat for several rare and endangered plant species.
