Prof. Olubukola Olakunbi Ojo

Profile of Prof. Olubukola Olakunbi Ojo

Prof. Olubukola Olakunbi Ojo is a Professor in the Department of Counselling and Human Development, Faculty of Education, Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, Nigeria. She is a certified master trainer in Proposal Development and Grantsmanship and has trained over 200 academics in proposal writing and research funding acquisition. Her expertise also spans Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) of research projects, having served as the Institutional M&E Officer for World Bank–funded projects at OAU.

Prof. Ojo’s research is centred on health counselling and human development, with a strong emphasis on the intersection of health, education, and wellbeing. She writes and speaks extensively in this area and serves as an Associate Lecturer in the Department of Public Health, OAU. She has supervised seven PhD dissertations and fifteen Master’s theses and has over 35 publications in reputable local and international journals. Her inaugural lecture, the 306th at OAU, delivered in April 2025, was titled “Navigating Health Counselling in Dimensions.”

She has an extensive record of consultancy and collaborative research with international organisations, particularly in projects aimed at expanding access to educational support and student counselling services. Prof. Ojo is the Principal Investigator for the TETFund National Research Fund (NRF) 2019 project on Needs and Vulnerability Assessment of Orphans in Orphanages and Family Settings in Nigeria. She served as Safeguard Officer for the World Bank–funded African Centre of Excellence in Software Engineering (OAU Knowledge Park) from 2014 to 2018 and as Monitoring and Evaluation Officer for the same project between 2010 and 2014. She was also the OAU Coordinator for the Development Research Uptake in Sub-Saharan Africa (DRUSSA) Project (2012–2016), funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID) in collaboration with the Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU).

Prof. Ojo has participated in several high-impact capacity-building initiatives, including Carnegie Corporation–funded projects on research management, resource mobilisation, and institutional partnerships (2003–2009). She led the development of the National Strategic Framework on Climate Change and participatory approaches to problem-solving and conflict management skills in Nigerian basic education for the Federal Ministry of Education (FME) and UNICEF in 2012.

She has made substantial contributions to national policy and curriculum development, including learning manuals on peacebuilding and conflict resolution, training manuals on counselling and adolescent health, assessments of violence and exploitation against children in schools, and frameworks for violence-free basic education and family life education, in collaboration with FME and UNICEF between 2005 and 2012.

Prof. Ojo has held several key academic and administrative positions at OAU, including Deputy Director, Linkages and Sponsored Research; Editor, Ife Journal of Education Studies; Chairperson, University Anti-Sexual Harassment Committee; and Head of the Department of Educational Foundations and Counselling. These roles have strengthened her leadership, mentorship, and administrative capacity, which continue to inform her teaching, research, and advisory work.