Lagos State University, LASU will measure its progress by graduate employability, research impact, student welfare and solutions to Lagos’ development challenges under a five-year agenda.
Vice-Chancellor of LASU, Professor Ayodeji Olawunmi Badejo announced the priorities at her inaugural Senate meeting on Thursday, October 29, 2026, challenging the university to move beyond its growing enrolment and institutional achievements to become what she described as Africa’s most consequential city university.
Badejo said LASU must evolve from an institution admired for its size to one whose contributions are indispensable to Lagos State and its residents.
The Vice-Chancellor identified research income running into millions of naira rather than billions, overcrowded classrooms and laboratories, and uncertainty among staff over verified entitlements as issues requiring urgent attention.
She argued that the university’s performance should no longer be judged mainly by its number of applicants, accredited programmes or physical infrastructure, but by measurable outcomes and the impact of its teaching and research.
Badejo outlined five guiding principles for her administration, beginning with making Lagos the university’s living laboratory.
She urged faculties to identify problems in the state’s ports, markets, hospitals, courts, technology companies, transport systems and flood-prone communities that academic research could help solve.
The second principle prioritises outcomes over inputs, with emphasis on student completion rates, graduate employability and research that influences public policy and improves society.
Under the third principle, focused on students’ overall development, she pledged to provide every student with an academic adviser, a single point of access to support services and supervised work experience before graduation.
She also promised to establish a University Counselling and Wellbeing Centre and a Student Opportunity Fund.
The fourth principle, which she described as “peace as productivity”, includes a commitment to provide every staff member with a confidential statement of verified entitlements within her first 100 days in office.
The fifth seeks to ensure that policies and achievements established during her single, non-renewable five-year tenure survive beyond her administration.
She pledged to introduce a published institutional strategy, transparent annual performance reports and a framework for continuity by future administrations.
Badejo also promised that, within her first year, she would present a comprehensive academic quality audit, an Admissions Excellence and Standards Framework, a policy on the responsible use of artificial intelligence in teaching, assessment and research, and an annual Faculty Frontier Review.
She said decisions requiring prior consideration by the Senate would be brought before the chamber, with supporting evidence made available and dissenting views respected.
The Vice-Chancellor also appealed to senior professors who had stopped attending Senate meetings to return and contribute their experience to university governance, warning that the institution risked repeating past mistakes without the involvement of its experienced academics.
Using the Yoruba proverb, “Àgbà kì í wà lọ́jà kí orí ọmọ tuntun wọ́,” she stressed the need for senior scholars to guide younger academics and help shape the university’s future.
Badejo called for an end to divisions among staff and campuses, insisting that Ojo, Ikeja, Epe and Badagry must operate as parts of one cohesive institution.
“Whatever side any of us stood on in the seasons behind us, there is only one side now, LASU’s,” she said.
She disclosed that 84,326 candidates had selected LASU as their first-choice institution in the current admission cycle, making it Nigeria’s most preferred university for the second consecutive year, according to her address. The institution serves more than 85,000 students across its campuses.
She also cited the opening of West Africa’s largest digital library, the university’s selection to host the South-West’s only national centre of excellence in artificial intelligence, robotics and cyber sciences, and the women’s football team’s representation of Africa on the global stage among its achievements.
However, she said these milestones must translate into greater academic value and measurable benefits for society.
Badejo, who acknowledged the contributions of previous substantive and acting vice-chancellors to LASU’s development, urged Senate members to take ownership of the new agenda and judge her administration by its results.
“We can manage the University we inherited or we can build the University the next generation deserves,” she said. “I choose to build.”