Pennsylvania State University, USA, has partnered with Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, Osun State, to foster research collaboration, scholarships, and student and staff exchange programs.
As part of efforts to expand knowledge in developing nations, Penn State selected four African universities for strategic partnerships.
A team from the university, led by Professor of Electrical Engineering Peter Idowu, visited OAU for a facility tour over the weekends.
They commended the institution’s management and expressed admiration for its academic excellence and infrastructure.
The don said: “The university is seeking to form partnership and collaboration with universities in West Africa and when we were scoping out for universities, OAU fit into our mission. It is very large, diverse, wide range in programme and comprehensive university like Penn State University.
“We want to partner with as many universities as possible looking at those who have a similar mission as ours. The goal is to start with one or two universities to look at how to do it and see how fruitful it is.”
In her remark on behalf of the Vice-Chancellor, the Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Academics, Professor Omobola Babalola described the partnership programme as a win-win situation for the two schools, saying it is aimed at expanding frontiers of teaching and leaning.
Also, OAU’s Executive Director Center for Research, Professor Ebunoluwa Adejuyigbe said the partnership would benefit, not just OAU, but Nigeria as a whole, as it would enable bringing knowledge from the developed world to Africa via Nigeria and propel the country towards becoming a develop nation through research.
“Research is very key to every aspect of life, to moving the country forward, particularly this time when we have Artificial Intelligence(AI) and machine learning, those are things we want to bring in from the developed world to the south, we also have things that we will exposing them to, so that the collaboration will be beneficial to both OAU and the Penn State University”, she posited.
