By Elizabeth Uwandu

The President/ Vice Chancellor, Babcock University, Prof. Ademola Tayo, has said quality education should not only be geared towards churning out graduates alone, but building intellectual minds that will be able to proffer solutions to a country’s challenges.

Prof Kayode Makinde, VC, Babcock Varsity

Speaking at the institution’s Founders Day ceremony that marked the 60th  anniversary of the institution, then a College coming into Nigeria, and its 20th  anniversary of being the first private university in the country, Prof. Tayo in his speech tagged, “The journey of grace,”  said the dream of the founding fathers was to provide an holistic education to train the manpower that would play pivotal roles in the growth of Nigeria.

According to him, “The dream of our founding fathers to establish a model institution for the holistic training of people who will be servant leaders, rendering faithful service to God and humanity is fulfilled, we can better understand the growth of Babcock university over the past decades if we consider the national context in which the campus was built.

“It was founded at a time of great need for expansion in access to higher education, particularly in the training of manpower in critical areas of national needs, and our school was to play a key role in facilitating   that growth in Nigeria.”

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He also affirmed that quality education is hinged on the application of technological innovations to enhance teaching, learning and research.    His words, “Babcock University is poised to boost the chances of those seeking formal education or those who want to upgrade their qualification through e-learning. We pride ourselves in the quality of academic and research that have over the years continued to win patent awards.

“In 2018 alone, we won three patent awards on these inventions; sugar-free potato flour; sweet potato composite baby weaning formula 11 and the production of wheat flour fortified with animal and plant proteins from the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology,”

The event also included the presentation of corporate and donor awards to companies and individuals, including the presentation of long service awards to staff who have spent 25 years and above in the institution.

Vanguard