PART 2 - Private Universities Setting the Pace for Academic Excellence and Research Breakthrough: A Special Focus on ABUAD


    "Labor, Service, and Integrity"


5. Specialized Areas: Built for the 21st Century

Chief Babalola did not copy the old model. He built for the future.

  • Engineering: ABUAD features one of the largest Colleges of Engineering on the African continent, with workshops that run 24/7.
  • Law: A top-tier Law College with a moot court that rivals those in Europe.
  • Medicine: A 400-bed modern teaching hospital that serves as both a training ground and a community service hub.

This is not “potential.” This is physical. This is running.


6. Value System: Degree Plus Skills

ABUAD emphasizes vocational education alongside academic studies, ensuring graduates have practical skills.

Every student, from Law to Medicine, takes compulsory vocational training—farming, tailoring, coding, catering.

The goal is clear: no ABUAD graduate joins the unemployment line. You either get a job, or you create one.

That is why ABUAD’s community service is not theory. Their hospital treats thousands. Their farms feed Ekiti and beyond. Their research centres solve real problems.


7. The Results: Ranked 1st in Nigeria, 3rd in Africa

Talk is cheap. Rankings are not.

ABUAD is renowned for its rapid rise, having been ranked by the Times Higher Education (THE) consecutively in 2024 and 2025 as 1st in Nigeria and 3rd in Africa, only after the 164th ranked university in the world.

Let that sink in. A 16-year-old private university now outranks UI, UNILAG, and OAU—institutions that are 60+ years old and funded by billions in public money.

ABUAD did not get there by accident. It got there by discipline, by investment, and by refusing to tolerate the rot that killed public universities.


The Contrast: Public Rot vs Private Reform

Public Universities:

  • Endless strikes
  • Degree-selling scandals
  • Sexual harassment and marks sorting
  • TETFUND diversion
  • “Professional students” stuck for over 10 years
  • Zero patents in decades after their establishment

ABUAD Model:

  • Zero strikes
  • No unions of any kind
  • Zero tolerance for exam fraud
  • IGR is properly used, with emphasis on value for money
  • 4-year courses end in 4 years
  • Research output that THE can measure

Chief Babalola saw the rot in UNILAG and chose to build a new ark. He did not complain about funding. He funded it himself. He did not wait for policy. He became the policy.


Conclusion: Is There Any Doubt ABUAD Is the University of Destination?

Parents are no longer asking, “Will my child get admission?” They are asking, “Will my child graduate on time?”

ABUAD has in place a school-fees-friendly payment policy that most parents can afford. Parents should not be concerned about whether their ward will get a job after graduation, or whether they will be safe from cultism and harassment. These are settled issues.

For thousands of Nigerian families, the answer is now ABUAD.

Because ABUAD proved what some university administrators have complained about for years: the problem is not money. The problem is management. The problem is not policy. The problem is people. The problem is not Nigeria. The problem is attitude.

Afe Babalola had one advantage public university Vice-Chancellors do not have: he owned the consequences. He could not blame Abuja. He could not blame unions. If ABUAD failed, his name failed.

So he worked hard to make it work, and it is working.

That is the lesson for every Governor, every Vice-Chancellor, every Registrar: excellence is not about subvention. It is about standards. It is about saying, “Not here. Not on my watch.”

Public universities can rise. But first, they must do what Chief Babalola did in UNILAG: carry out a surgical operation. Cut out the rot - or be cut out of global relevance.

ABUAD is not just a university. It is an indictment. And it is a blueprint.


By Ambrose Odiase, FIPMA, MANUPA, MAUA (UK)
Founding Editor, CampusDialog

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