The newly appointed Vice-Chancellor of Caleb University, Professor Olalekan Asikhia, has unveiled a seven-point agenda aimed at fostering academic excellence
Asikhia, who was appointed in June for a three-year tenure, disclosed the agenda on Wednesday during a media engagement at the university’s Council Chamber in Imota, Ikorodu, Lagos State.
The VC noted that his administration will focus on enhancing innovation and research, with the goal of placing the institution as number one in Nigeria and 20th in Africa by 2030.
”My vision is to create a godly environment for dream fulfilment, ensuring academic excellence, ensuring research and innovation, facilitating and maintaining global and international linkage collaboration, driving institutional governance, and supporting environmental sustainability,” he said.
According to him, the institution will also commit to developing the entrepreneurial skills of its students to make them job creators and self-reliant.
He stressed that other parts of the agenda include collaboration with local and international institutions, bridging the gap between “town and gown” through industry collaboration, decentralizing services, promoting student-led chapel activities, and instilling discipline through mentorship rather than compulsion.
”We are encouraging students to register their companies while still on campus and start operating their businesses before graduation,” Asikhia added.
He also noted the university is developing a robust endowment and investment strategy for financial sustainability while commercializing its research outputs. To improve university ratings, lecturers are now mandated to publish four Scopus-indexed research papers yearly.
Speaking on funding, the VC argued that the Federal Government should support quality research in private institutions, stressing that such funding would enhance national development.
“It would have been very lovely if the government could agree that private universities should benefit from TETFund,” Asikhia said. “It would have greatly helped research and the general development of the nation… not encouraging their research is a minus to the nation. Concentrating only on public, federal, and state universities… is not allowing the nation to make use of its lofty human resources. The nation is the one cheating itself in that regard.”
Regarding Artificial Intelligence, Asikhia said the institution would adopt AI in a way that does not erode critical thinking. He concluded by stressing the university’s commitment to moulding students who are “reflective solutions to world problems.”
In her remarks, the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research, Innovation, Strategy, and Administration), Adetutu Ajayi, stressed that the university has published cutting-edge research papers in top-tier journals, earning the institution partnerships with universities in the UK and Turkey, among others.
Also speaking, the DVC (Academics), Professor Sunday Adewale, added that to ensure student research is solution-driven, the university ensures such research has input from key industry players.
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