Gbenga Oloniniran
The Lagos State Commissioner for Tertiary Education, Tolani Sule, has announced that the State Executive Council has approved the upgrade of Lagos State University College of Medicine to a specialised medical university, to be named the University of Medicine and Health Sciences.
He disclosed this on Friday at the Conference Hall, Tetfund building, LASUCOM premises, during a stakeholders’ meeting jointly organised by the Ministry of Tertiary Education and Ministry of Health with the management teams of LASUCOM and Lagos State University Teaching Hospital in attendance.
Sule revealed that the draft law to establish the university had been approved for submission to the Lagos State House of Assembly.
He noted that the university would function with a network of clinical training facilities across the IBILE Administrative divisions of the state, with LASUTH serving as the primary oversight clinical training facility.
Reaffirming the government’s commitment to the project, the Commissioner for Health, Prof Akin Abayomi, said, “This administration will not back down on this upgrade.”
He said, “A sizeable expanse of land has been made available at Ketu-Ejirin in Epe to serve as the main campus of the university which will house the administrative buildings and the basic medical science programmes, while the clinical training will be at LASUTH and other designated clinical training facilities across the IBILE administrative divisions.”
He explained further that the innovative plan would allow the new university to use the clinical personnel and infrastructure of other well-equipped general hospitals and some private hospitals and laboratories in Lagos to train a larger number of medical doctors and other health professionals.
The Provost of LASUCOM, Prof Abiodun Adewuya, expressed his gratitude to the state government and emphasised the college’s readiness to support the transition to the University of Medicine and Health Science.
He added that the college management was happy about the announcement, noting that Sanwo-Olu’s administration had shown absolute commitment and sincerity to float the university.
In his words, “The government under the leadership of Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu has shown beyond doubt its ability to successfully transit the college to a full-blown university and so the commissioner’s message is definitely good news.
“Let me assure everyone that the college is ready to support the government to achieve this goal.”
The state government, in August, commenced the process of converting LASUCOM into a full-fledged, stand-alone medical university.
Sanwo-Olu announced in early January that his government would establish a medical university to enhance the state’s medical infrastructure and counter the emigration of doctors and other medical personnel abroad.
The governor, who stated that the university would be established before the end of 2024, mentioned that the medical university would graduate about 1,500 doctors annually and encourage other states to follow the Lagos example.
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