UNILAG Annual Lecturer Stresses Postgraduate Education as Key to National Transformation

The University of Lagos (UNILAG) hosted the 2025 Annual Lecture of its School of Postgraduate Studies (SPGS) on Thursday, August 14, 2025, with a strong call to reposition postgraduate education as a central driver of Nigeria’s national development.

Held at the Tayo Aderinokun Auditorium, the event brought together academics, policymakers, postgraduate students, and industry leaders under the theme “Postgraduate Education: Setting Agenda for National Development.”

In his opening remarks, Dean of SPGS, Professor Abraham Osinubi, described the lecture as a platform for interrogating ideas that can “fix the disconnect between the brain of academia and the muscles of industry,” while Vice-Chancellor, Professor Folasade Ogunsola, emphasized that postgraduate research must serve as an engine for innovation, governance reform, and industrial growth.

Chairman of the occasion and founder of Phillips Consulting Group, Mr. Foluso Phillips, underscored the link between human capital and national competitiveness, warning that Nigeria risks “building schools without blueprints” unless deliberate strategies are adopted.

Delivering the lecture, former Head of the Federal Civil Service, Professor Oladapo Afolabi, OON, CFR, made a compelling case for treating postgraduate education as a strategic national asset. He outlined six bold moves for Nigeria: revamping curricula to align with Vision 2050, boosting funding, strengthening industry-academia partnerships, promoting global collaboration, granting universities greater autonomy, and creating a National Research Council.

Professor Afolabi also highlighted systemic challenges, including brain drain, inadequate funding, and outdated curricula, warning that failure to address them would continue to limit Nigeria’s development.

The event concluded with an interactive session and closing remarks from Mr. Phillips, reinforcing the call for postgraduate education to be strategically harnessed as a tool for driving innovation and national reform.

The 2025 SPGS Annual Lecture reaffirmed UNILAG’s role as a hub for high-level manpower development and underscored that the future of Nigeria’s development agenda rests heavily on the quality and direction of its postgraduate education system.