By Segun James
The Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu recently launched a collaboration between the Lagos State University (LASU) and an American based University, Cornell University, New York for 16 professional certificate programmes to be jointly run by the two institutions.
Speaking during the virtual launch ceremony, the governor stated that the establishment of LASU/Cornell University Postgraduate Professional Certificate Programmes was aimed at giving prospective students across the country an opportunity to gain global skills and professional expertise that will not only make them relevant and employable, but globally competitive in the 21st-century digital economy.
He said the decision to collaborate with Cornell University, rated to be one of the best leading universities in the world, was borne out of the desire to keep and sustain LASU’s present pedigree and high academic profile as the second-best university in Nigeria and one of the best 600 in the world.
He stated that the collaboration is a further demonstration of his administration’s commitment to the implementation of quality and sustainable policy that would not only meet the educational needs of the citizenry, but act as a catalyst for individual growth and rapid socio-economic development.
“The collaboration for professional postgraduate certificates in 16 areas, including Entrepreneurship Skills, Human Resource Development, Innovation and Creativity, Marketing, Leadership Skills, Management, Data Science and Statistics, would help prospective students to gain global skills that would make them relevant, employable and globally competitive.”
While promising that the state government would closely monitor all the treaties and agreements under the collaboration to ensure that there is no breach of trust, the governor appealed to the foreign partners to give LASU/Cornell collaboration all necessary support and professional advice that would not only enhance LASU’s current ratings, but make it a university of first choice in Africa.
In his remarks, Cornell University Vice-President, Professor Paul Krause, stated that his institution was ready to partner LASU to run 16 professional certificate courses that would help to build the capacity of prospective students through exposure and impactful training.
He noted that globally, the university is one of the leading institutions in entrepreneurship skills development, innovation and creativity, management, leadership training, engineering, data science and statistics, promising that it would design a programme content to impact on the productivity of the students.
Krause commended the governor for investing in education, adding that learning remains a strong weapon to fight ignorance and bring sustainable development to the society.
The acting Vice-Chancellor of LASU, Professor Oyedamola Oke, disclosed that the collaboration process started about three years ago during the tenure of the former VC, Professor Olanrewaju Fagbohun in furtherance of the university’s academic excellence.
He said the collaboration would give LASU’s professional certificate programmes an international outlook, add value and bring improvement to the quality of learning.
The highlight of the event was the registration of Sanwo-Olu as the first student for a postgraduate professional certificate in a leadership course.
