The vice chancellor of Thomas Adewunmi University (TAU), Oko, Professor Francisca Oladipo, has disclosed that the institution is about to start its Open Distance Learning programme, priding her institution as the fourth best university in Kwara State, 11th of all the private universities and 39th in the over 300 in the country.
Professor Oladipo, who made the disclosure during an online media chat with journalists, added “in Kwara, we have outranked Al-Hikmah University and we are pushing to do the same with the Kwara State University (KWASU) and University of Ilorin.”
Affirming that her institution was poised to take the leadership position, she said, “we are confident that with the commitment of our founder, staff and corporation of the parents, we will get there in no distant time.”
Speaking about her achievements in office since she assumed the driver seat of TAU, she noted: “When I came in, the university had no strategic plan. A lot of things were happening but not coordinated, so I decided to produce one.
“We started with 13 academic programmes and by next September, we are going to admit our first set of medical students. This together with Law was never in the plan before, they were meant to take off after 25 years of the university’s establishment.
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“I resumed in August and by October of the same year, we got NUC’s approval to start our Law programme, though it was daunting but I insisted that we must offer signature academic programmes if we want to stand out.
She hinted that in the whole of Kwara South, none of the universities offers medical programmes except Thomas Adewumi University (TAU).
“TAU is the only institution in Kwara State that is offering a Doctor in Physiotherapy course, it’s not even yet offered in the University of Ilorin where they have a bachelor degree. Though UNILORIN is our mentor university, it doesn’t yet have a full Faculty of Nursing Science. We have gotten a full operational license from the NUC.
“We have moved to 27 strong academic programmes from the initial 13. For the current session, we have admitted close to 700 students and the number keeps increasing.”
