Ajayi Crowther University (ACU)

Ajayi Crowther University (ACU) is a private, faith-based university in Oyo, Oyo State, established by the Supra Diocesan Board (West) of the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion). Although the university received its Federal Government licence to operate as a private university on 7 January 2005 and commenced academic activities in 2006, its institutional history reaches back to the nineteenth-century Christian missionary education movement in Nigeria.
The university traces its origins to the CMS Training Institution established in Abeokuta in 1853, which was subsequently relocated to Lagos and then Oyo. The Oyo institution developed into St. Andrews College, an important centre for teacher and church-minister training. After government takeover of schools in 1977 and subsequent institutional changes, the Church of Nigeria and St. Andrews College Old Boys Association pursued the transformation of the historic institution into a university. The Church ultimately received approval to establish Ajayi Crowther University at the former St. Andrews College site in 1999.
Named after Samuel Ajayi Crowther, the first African Anglican bishop, ACU was established with an explicitly Christian educational philosophy combining academic development, character formation, spirituality, entrepreneurship and service to humanity. Its motto, “Scientia Probitas” (Knowledge with Probity), reflects the university's stated emphasis on combining scholarship with moral integrity.