FUOYE and the future ahead

By: Justina Nwankwo

After five years of superlative achievements under its current Vice-Chancellor, the Federal University, Oye-Ekiti (FUOYE) is looking forward to a new era when there is a change of baton in the headship of the ivory tower early next year.

Created in 2011 among several others, FUOYE has had four Vice-Chancellors, with the incumbent, Professor Abayomi Fasina, appointed in 2021.

The historic rise of FUOYE to becoming one of the leading and respected universities in Nigeria began with the tenure of Fasina, who took FUOYE from infancy and groomed it into a prestigious university, one competing in academic laurels and innovation with the old generation universities. Indeed, it could be rightly said that the actual physical development of FUOYE began under the Fasina tenure, given the preponderance of the blue-roofed infrastructure at both Oye-Ekiti and Ikole campuses of the university, which is a signature for all physical developments initiated and completed during his tenure.

In four years, 156 projects — including a 1,000-capacity main auditorium, several faculty buildings, a professorial building, an innovation hub centre, a conference centre, a student union building, and many more — are all to the credit of the Fasina administration.

On academic depth, FUOYE researchers have improved tremendously since 2021 when Professor Fasina took over as Vice-Chancellor. Under his administration, it became mandatory for staff to publish articles in journals indexed in Scopus, Web of Science (WOS), IBSS and others — a practice that benchmarks the promotion of academic staff members of the university.

The number of authors affiliated to FUOYE whose works are indexed in the Scopus database increased from 261 in 2020 to 294 in 2021; 463 in 2022; 650 in 2023; and 769 in 2024. This is no doubt a legendary improvement. The university has improved tremendously in ranking by international bodies.

A worthy parting gift for the Vice-Chancellor of the university is the recent recognition of four scholars of FUOYE as being among the world’s top two per cent scientists in the 2025 annual ranking by the Top Scientists Network (TopSciNet). The annual ranking identifies scientists whose research impact, citations, and productivity place them in the top two per cent globally within their respective fields.

Similarly, the recently released rankings of Nigerian universities place FUOYE as the 11th best in the country — an improvement from the 12th position it occupied last year. The transformative leadership of Professor Fasina would be underscored by the fact that FUOYE was ranked 32nd in Nigeria in 2020, 25th in 2021, 23rd in 2022, 17th in 2023, 12th in 2024 and 11th this year.

Since 2021, the university has transitioned into the league of Nigeria’s best tertiary institutions. This is in addition to being the fourth most subscribed university in the country.

Recently, all 82 students of FUOYE’s Department of Medical Laboratory Science successfully passed the first professional Medical Laboratory Council examination during a two-day assessment in September, which tested the candidates’ professional knowledge and practical competence in medical diagnostics.

The sterling achievements of the Fasina tenure in FUOYE are hinged upon a deliberate focus by the management of the university to comply with global best practices and ensure a stable academic calendar.

Compared with any of its peers created in 2011, FUOYE today has more faculties and academic programmes and has more students in its enrolment. Unlike others, FUOYE has had an uninterrupted academic calendar since Fasina’s appointment. Indeed, no academic session was lost during the COVID-19 pandemic, thanks to the innovative and robust learning management systems with efficient ICT architecture.

All these form the backdrop of excellence in administration, research, and recognition that FUOYE’s new Vice-Chancellor would have to sustain.

It, therefore, goes without saying that whoever is appointed to lead the university for the next five years must come with a resourceful résumé that earns him or her easy recognition in the global academic community.

The new Vice-Chancellor of FUOYE must be someone who has the fibre of ingenuity and must be a genius in research and administration. In an era of acute competition in the world of research and innovation, FUOYE requires a Vice-Chancellor who can lead from the front and chart the pathway for the university’s rise to higher repute.

• Justina Nwankwo, an alumnus of the Federal University, Oye-Ekiti, and a public affairs commentator, writes from Lagos.