Vice Chancellor

Elisabeta Smaranda Olarinde is a Professor of Law and Acting Vice-Chancellor, Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State, Nigeria. She is a law teacher, a scholar and researcher, university administrator and Legal Practitioner for over 37 years. ProfessorOlarinde joined Nigeria’s Premier University, the University of Ibadan, Ibadan in 1984 and later continued her academic career at Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti, in 2010 where she became a full Professor in October 2015. Professor Olarindehas many articles in local and international peer-reviewed Journals. She was a researcher to the International Documentation and Research Centre (IDRC) on Land Tenure and Access to Land for Women; a researcher to UNICEF on the Joint Research Initiated by the Word Bank on Law, Development and the Status of Women Towards a Gender Strategy in Nigeria; – Legal Researcher for Niger and Oyo States; member of the Netherland, Israel and Nigeria joint research on the Girl Child’s Sexuality. She is a founding member of the first Nigerian Interdisciplinary Research Network on Social Sciences and Reproductive Health (SSRHN), University Teaching Hospital (UCH) Ibadan, a Research funded by Ford and Mc Arthur Foundations. Her legal background in both Civil Law (Romania) and Common Law (Nigeria) adds to her diverse multidisciplinary expertise that offers her a distinctive comparative perspective on national and international legal research, where her focus has been on Medical Law, Private Law, Women, Children and Young Adolescents’ Rights and Protection. She is a Fellow of the Nigerian Institute of Chartered Arbitrators (NICA); Fellow, Institute of Corporate Administration of Nigeria; Pioneer member and Fellow, Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies (CEPACS), University of Ibadan. She has co-authored two scholarly books namely Modern Law of Torts: A Kaleidoscopic Perspective and Introduction to Legal Practice and Lawyering Skills in Nigeria. She was the Editor-in-Chief of the maiden edition of the Law Journal of the Public & International Law Department, University of Ibadan and the Editor-in-Chief ABUAD Law Journal, College of Law, ABUAD, from 2014 to 2021. She was the Provost College of Law and the Pioneer Director of Law Clinic ABUAD from 2011 to 31^st March 2021. She has brought innovation into the Nigeria Law curriculum by introducing in the College of Law ABUAD curriculum in 2011 the course titled Introduction of Legal Practice that has 3 distinctive components: the mandatory Chambers attachment, after the 3^rd and 4^th year, the Clinical component and the theory that is taught in modules. She is a member of many National and International Professional Bodies. Professor Olarinde is the Chairperson of the Advisory Board for Center for Socio-Legal Studies (CSLS) Nigeria. Currently she is the West Africa Representative of the Association of African Universities (AAU) Governing Board (2021-2025) and member of the West Africa Regional Committee of the Association of Commonwealth Universities. She is trained in Quality Assurance and Accreditation in Higher Education and she is a certified Accreditor by Global University Network for Innovation (GUNi-Africa) and African Quality Assurance Network (AfriQAN).