The university began as a University College affiliated to the oldest university in Nigeria in 1975 under the leadership of the then principal, Dr T.N. Tamuno. The first set of 200 students, selected following an entrance examination, were admitted into residence on 23 October 1976, while academic work started on 25 October after the Principal’s address. The University College started with three academic faculties of Arts, Science and Education.
In October 1977, the institution attained full autonomous status with appointment of the then Principal, Professor O.O Akinkugbe as first vice chancellor. The immediate past vice chancellor, Professor Is-haq Oloyede is the first Unilorin alumnus to occupy that position. The staff and student populations now stand at 3,040 and over 30,084 respectively.
The University started off on a portion of the temporary campus of the Kwara State Polytechnic known as the mini campus. This was the site of academic programmes in the Faculties of Arts, Science, Education, Engineering & Technology, Business and Social Sciences, and basic clinical sciences of the Health Sciences Faculty. It was the only campus of the university until January 1982 when more than 1000 students studying science were moved following completion of new Faculty blocks and residences for Natural Sciences and Engineering on the permanent campus site. From 1983, the law programme was started as a department in the Faculty of Business and Social Sciences. Following a 6-year hiatus, it was re-established in 1993 as a full-fledged Faculty. The university now has 15 faculties: Arts, Agriculture, Environmental Sciences, Life Sciences, Management Sciences, Physical Sciences, Social Sciences, Communication and Information Sciences,[3] Education, Engineering and Technology, Pharmaceutical Science, Veterinary Medicine, and Law; a College of Health Sciences (with 2 Faculties-Basic Medical and Clinical Sciences); two institutes (Institute of Education and Unilorin Sugar Research Institute); and the Postgraduate School. These faculties have over 60 academic departments. Undergraduate degree programmes are run for 3-5, or 6 years, depending on entry qualifications and discipline.
The University of Ilorin is located in the ancient city of Ilorin, about 500 kilometres from Abuja, the Federal capital. Ilorin, the Capital of Kwara State, is strategically located at the geographical and cultural confluence of the North and South with a land mass of 75,000 (approximate) hectare.
University of Ilorin was one of the seven institutions of higher learning established by a decree of the Federal Military Government in August, 1975. This step, taken to implement one of the educational directives of the country’s Third National Development Plan, was aimed at providing more opportunities for Nigerians aspiring to acquire university education and to generate high level man-power, so vital for the rapidly expanding economy.
The then University College of Ilorin was initially affiliated to the University of Ibadan. Dr. T.N. Tamuno, Professor and Head of History Department at the University of Ibadan, was appointed the first Principal of the College in September, 1975. Shortly after Professor Tamuno’s appointment as Principal of the College, he was appointed the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ibadan. It therefore, became necessary to appoint another Principal in the person of Professor O.O. Akinkugbe, former Dean of the then Faculty of Medicine, University of Ibadan, in December 1975.
The then new Principal, Professor O.O. Akinkugbe, made several visits to the second Military Governor of Kwara State, the late Colonel Ibrahim Taiwo in connection with the new institution, such that by March 1976, he had established residence at Ilorin. The support given to the fledgling Institution by Governor Taiwo continued even more vigorously under the third Military Governor of the State, Brigadier George A. Innih, who ceded a portion of the temporary site of the Kwara State College of Technology to the University. The site, up till now, serves as the mini campus of the University. |
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