By
Fatimah Idera
Unilag First Female V.C, Professor Folasade Ogunsola was born in 1958, to the late ace photographer, Akin Mabogunje, who worked as a lecturer at the University of Ibadan.
She attended Queen’s College, between 1974 and 1982 for her secondary education and obtained her first degree in Medicine and Surgery at Obafemi Awolowo University, the then University of Ife between 1974 and I982.
She bagged her Master’s degree from the College of Medicine in University of Lagos and she proceeded for her doctorate at University of Wales between 1992 and 1997 for her PhD in Medical Microbiology.
Ogunsola was a Professor of Medical Microbiology at the University of Lagos College of Medicine, Idi Araba, Lagos as she specialises in disease control, particularly HIV/AIDS and the principal investigator at AIDS Prevention Initiative in Nigeria at the University of Lagos.
Ogunsola was also a provost of College of Medicine, University of Lagos and is reputed as being the first woman to occupy the position.
Folashade Ogunsola was appointed as Acting Vice Chancellor of the University of Lagos on August 24, 2020, a position she held for a short period when the University was plunged into crisis as a result of the removal of the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Oluwatoyin Ogundipe, by the Wale Babalakin-led University Council.
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.
Similarly, she was the provost of the College of Medicine, University of Lagos as her research areas have been centred on the regulation and management of viral diseases,
The female V.C has also been the chairman of Infection Control Committee of Lagos University Teaching Hospital and the chairman of the National Association of Colleges of Medicine in Nigeria.
Ogunsola 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.
However, She emerged as the Unilag first-ever female vice chancellor of the 60-year-old University of Lagos on October 7, 2022 and the 13th substantive Vice Chancellor to succeed Professor Ogundipe, whose tenure elapses in November.
Her tenure kicks off from Saturday, November 12, 2022, after the current VC’s five-year tenure elapses on November 11, 2022 and She will be at the helm of the University’s affairs from November 12, 2022 to November 11, 2027.
