Ok, let me ask, what’s the cheapest private university in Nigeria? someone just said it’s the Ilisan-Remo based Backcock University. Though, the Institution is loved by many in the south-western region of the country but many people think its for the rich and not for everybody, now the President and Vice-Chancellor, Prof Tayo Ademola, has described the institution as the cheapest amongst all private universities in Nigeria
The vice-chancellor stated this during a briefing held on the main campus of the university to mark the 20th year of its existence and the 60th anniversary of the establishment of Babcock College.
Stressing that Babcock had always been relatively cheap, compared to the services it rendered, he added that despite the institution’s status as the cheapest in Nigeria, all its 36 academic programmes were fully accredited and of global standards.
Ademola also noted that the university had produced the best graduating students from the Nigerian Law School for more than two consecutive years.
He explained that the tuition and other fees charged by the university were often used to provide everything the students would need during their stay at the institution.
“We feed the students, insure them, accommodate them, among others,” he said.
The vice-chancellor further explained that the university spent about N80million each month on a gas plant, so as to have uninterrupted power supply across the campus.
On the institution’s achievements in the past 20 years, he disclosed that the university teaching hospital had performed more than 300 successful open heart surgeries in the last four years.
The VC said, “For Babcock, this means 60 years of nurturing great minds as a higher institution of learning and 20 years of global recognition in pioneering private university education in Nigeria.
“The student population has increased from seven in 1959 to over 10,000 today, as well as over 12,000 alumni.
“We would continue to do more and ensure that our education meets the pre requisites for global standard”.
Speaking on the prospects of the university, the VC said that plans were underway to make the institution become 100 percent Information Communication Technology-driven.
He further said the institution had expanded its bandwidth to 700 per cent so that the students could have access to Internet facilities.
He said, “We want to make the University to be an ICT university that will be 100 per cent IT driven. We have said that all our students must have a tablet to ease interaction between lecturers and students. We already have e-learning, tele-medicine and we want to turn the university to a paperless institution.”
Outlining the activities lined up for the 60/20 celebration, the Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Sunday Owolabi, said the celebration would take place between September 14 and end 19, with a meeting of the management of the university and the proprietors of all the secondary and primary schools under the management of the Seventh Day Adventist Church.