Prof. Ogunsola becomes UNILAG first female Vice Chancellor
A Professor of Microbiology at the College of Medicine, Prof Folasade Ogunsola has emerged as the first female Vice Chancellor of the University of Lagos in 60 years.
The announcement was made on Friday by the university council of the ivory tower. She will succeed Profesor Ogundipe when the latter’s five-year tenure winds down in November this year.
Among seven candidates shortlisted for the institution’s top job, Professor Folasade 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.
Born in 1958, Folasade Tolulope Ogunsola was raised at the University of Ibadan where her father, Akin Mabogunje, was a lecturer.
As a child, Ogunsola mimicked medical practitioners by using dolls as patients, while offering medical care to them. She attended Queen’s College, Lagos.
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.
The Professor of Medical Microbiology specialises in disease control, particularly HIV/AIDS, and was the provost of the College of Medicine, the University of Lagos reputed as being the first woman to occupy the position.
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.
Prior to being the deputy vice-chancellor, she was the provost of the College of Medicine, University of Lagos. Her research areas have been centred on the regulation and management of viral diseases, particularly HIV. She is the principal investigator at the AIDS Prevention Initiative in Nigeria at the University of Lagos.
She has also been the chairman of the Infection Control Committee of Lagos University Teaching Hospital. Additionally, she is 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.