A foremost university in the United Kingdom (UK), the King’s College in London, has praised the management of Afe Babalola University in Ado-Ekiti (ABUAD) for the academic excellence it has attained in just one decade of its establishment.
King’s College’s President, Prof. Shitij Kapur, noted that ABUAD had established itself as a reputable tertiary institution by bridging the educational divide on global scale through the promotion of scholarships and cutting-edge research.
Kapur spoke at the weekend during the launching of Afe Babalola Centre for Transnational Education at King’s College in London at ABUAD campus.
The academic described the achievements that ABUAD has achieved in education and healthcare as unparalleled and supersonic.
Kapur added that the team from King’s College wanted to learn from the ambition and mission of ABUAD, which resulted in the giant strides the institution has recorded within its short life span.
“I am here today because we are launching the Aare Afe Babalola Centre for Transnational Education. The centre will be based in London. It’s a privilege to see ABUAD. My colleague and I are inspired by what we saw.
“We came here not to teach but to learn. What we came to learn is the ambition and mission of this university. I am surprised that it takes this university to go from zero to 8,000 students in less than a decade. It took us centuries to build a world-class hospital that we have and you have built one in less than a decade.
“So, I think the future is in your hands. They say humanity began from the continent of Africa and I think the century belongs here. We are here to embrace and we are here to contribute in whatever little way we can to your success.”
The Vice President of International Engagement and Service at King’s College, Prof. Funmi Olonisakin, said the centre would enable brilliant students in Africa to get quality education.
“The centre will give the brightest of the people in Africa quality education. We are building a transnational partnership that will allow ABUAD to liaise with other universities in the world. It will enable ABUAD students to have access to the universities in the comfort of their campus,” she said.
ABUAD Founder, Aare Afe Babalola (SAN), described the launching of the transnational education centre as an assurance that underprivileged persons would have access to quality education.
He said: “This development is an assurance to me that the underprivileged will access education and the future is bright. There are so many people who could not afford to go to school, like in my own case.
“This relationship we are having with the King’s College will give them the opportunity to learn without necessarily going to the college or ABUAD and yet they can become graduates, like I did.”
Babalola noted that the growing profile of ABUAD across the world was not a fluke but a product of strategic planning, hard work, dedication, consistency, and commitment to setting the highest standard for education in the country.
“I am replicating what I suffered and how I conquered poverty. It is to me hope for now, hope for tomorrow, and hopes for the future.
“I am worried by the level of education in the country. That was why after I left UNILAG as a Pro-Chancellor, I established this university to be an example of how a university should be run.
“It is because of the high standard we have achieved that King’s College directly got in touch with us. We didn’t lobby for it to establish a centre for underprivileged people, not only in Nigeria but in the whole of Africa.
“To me, there is hope for everybody: there is hope for the rich, the poor and for everybody who wants to work hard. That is what we have achieved today.”
