Lagos State Commissioner for Tertiary Education, Mr Tolani Sule, disclosed at the weekend that the state Executive Council has approved the upgrade of Lagos State University College of Medicine (LASUCOM) to a specialised medical university to be named “University of Medicine & Health Sciences” (U.M.H).
The commissioner revealed this during a stakeholder meeting jointly organised by the Ministry of Tertiary Education and Ministry of Health with the management teams of LASUCOM and Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, LASUTH.
Sule further revealed that the draft law to establish the university has also been approved for submission to the Lagos State House of Assembly.
He noted that the university will function with a network of clinical training facilities across the state’s IBILE administrative divisions, with LASUTH as the primary oversight clinical training facility.
Reaffirming the government’s commitment to the project, the state’s commissioner for Health, Prof. Akin Abayomi, said, “This administration will not back down on this upgrade.
“A sizeable expanse of land has been made available at Ketu-Ejirin in Epe to serve as the main campus of the university, which will house the administrative buildings and the basic medical science programmes while the clinical training will be at LASUTH and other designated clinical training facilities across the IBILE administrative divisions.
He explained further that the innovative plan will allow the new University to use the clinical personnel and infrastructure of other well-equipped General Hospitals and even some private hospitals and laboratories in Lagos to train many medical doctors and other health professionals.
The Provost of LASUCOM, Prof Abiodun Adewuya, expressed his gratitude to the state government and emphasised the college’s readiness to support the transition to the University of Medicine and Health Science.
He added that the college management is happy about the development, noting that Sanwo-Olu’s administration has shown absolute commitment and sincerity to float the university.
In his words, “The government, under the leadership of Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has shown beyond doubt her ability to successfully transform the college into a full-blown University, and so the commissioner’s message is good news.
