Science, Medicine & Engineering
Landmark
Grace Alele-Williams
1932 – 2022
The first woman to be vice-chancellor of a Nigerian university
Landmark is level 2 of 4 in the Nigeria Hall of Fame: a first that opened a door, or the pre-eminent figure of their generation in this country. See how the levels work.
Why they are here
A mathematician who became the first Nigerian woman to hold a doctorate and the first woman to lead a Nigerian university.
Grace Awani Alele-Williams took her doctorate in mathematics education at the University of Chicago in 1963, the first Nigerian woman to earn a doctorate in any field.
Her research was on how mathematics is actually taught and learned in African classrooms, and on why so few girls stayed with the subject. She worked with UNESCO across West Africa on curriculum reform and ran the workshops that trained a generation of Nigerian mathematics teachers.
In 1985 she was appointed vice-chancellor of the University of Benin — the first woman to head a university in Nigeria. She inherited an institution with entrenched cult violence and examination-racketeering, and broke both, at real personal risk; she also cleared out the certificate forgery operating through the admissions system. She held the post for seven years.
She chaired the board of numerous institutions afterwards and campaigned all her life on girls' education, on the argument that the shortage of Nigerian women in science was a supply problem created at school. She died in 2022.
Her research was on how mathematics is actually taught and learned in African classrooms, and on why so few girls stayed with the subject. She worked with UNESCO across West Africa on curriculum reform and ran the workshops that trained a generation of Nigerian mathematics teachers.
In 1985 she was appointed vice-chancellor of the University of Benin — the first woman to head a university in Nigeria. She inherited an institution with entrenched cult violence and examination-racketeering, and broke both, at real personal risk; she also cleared out the certificate forgery operating through the admissions system. She held the post for seven years.
She chaired the board of numerous institutions afterwards and campaigned all her life on girls' education, on the argument that the shortage of Nigerian women in science was a supply problem created at school. She died in 2022.
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