Prof Adetowun Felicia Ogusheye (NC 1949)

(1926- , Banjo)

Adetowun Felicia Ogusheye was an academic trailblazer from the start. After leaving secondary school in 1946,  she became the only female student at Yaba College of Technology, from where she was the first woman to graduate. Her interest in education was clear, and she studied for a teaching diploma at University College Idaban.

However, rather than immediately beginning a career as a teacher, her academic ability won her a scholarship to Newnham, where studied geography, matriculating in 1949. She is believed to be the first Nigerian woman to study at Cambridge.

After graduating, she returned to Nigeria and took up a teaching post in a school. After a couple of years, however, her academic interests won out. She moved to a post in a University library, which would be the beginning of a academic career focusing on information studies and education.

In 1973, she became a Professor at the University of Ibadan: the first Nigerian woman to become a Professor. She later became Dean of the Faculty of Education: again,  the first woman to become a Dean in Nigeria.

Prof Ogusheye’s distinguished career paved the way for many of her country’s women: indeed, her niece would become Nigeria’s first female Professor of Psychiatry, once again at the University of Idaban.