14 Things To Know About UNILAG’s First Female Vice Chancellor, Professor Folasade Ogunsola

Folasade Ogunshola Biography

On Friday, Oct 7, 2022, history was made with the appointment of Professor Folasade Ogunsola as the first female Vice Chancellor of the University of Lagos (UNILAG).

With her appointment as the first female Vice-Chancellor, she breaks a 60-year jinx.

Ogunsola, a Professor of Microbiology at the University’s College of Medicine, emerged as the institution’s 13th substantive Vice Chancellor to succeed Professor Oluwatoyin Ogundipe, whose tenure elapses in November.

Here are some things to know about her.

ALSO READ: Professor Folasade Ogunsola Emerges First Female Acting Vice-Chancellor Of UNILAG

1. She was born in 1958 to the family of the renowned Akin Mabogunje, Nigeria’s first professor of geography.

2. She grew up at the University of Ibadan where her father lectured.

3. Ogunsola attended Queen’s College, Lagos for her secondary education.

4. Between 1974 and 1982, she obtained her first degree from the University of Ife, now Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, and a Master’s degree from the College of Medicine, University of Lagos.

5. She proceeded to her doctorate at the University of Wales between 1992 and 1997.

6. Ogunsola was provost of the College of Medicine, University of Lagos, and is reputed as being the first woman to occupy the position.

7. She was also the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Development Services) of the University between 2017 and 2021, a position she occupied before ascending to the institution’s Acting Vice Chancellorship.

8. Ogunsola was appointed as Acting Vice Chancellor of the University of Lagos on August 24, 2020.

9. She is the principal investigator at the AIDS Prevention Initiative in Nigeria (APIN) at the University of Lagos.

10. She has also been the chairman of the Infection Control Committee of Lagos University Teaching Hospital and is also the chairman of the National Association of Colleges of Medicine in Nigeria.

12. She was a founding member of the Nigerian Society for Infection control in 1998 and is also a member of the Global Infection Prevention and Control Network.

13. She played a key role in the fight against Ebola in 2014.

14. Ogunsola met her husband while studying medicine at the Obafemi Awolowo University.