Lagos, Nigeria — The University of Lagos (UNILAG), through its Centre for Digital Humanities (CEDHUL), has announced the commencement of a suite of postgraduate degree programmes in Digital Humanities — the Postgraduate Diploma (PGD), Master of Arts (M.A.), MPhil, and Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) — with effect from September 2026. This landmark development positions the University of Lagos as the first institution in sub-Saharan Africa to offer a full spectrum of postgraduate qualifications in this transformative and rapidly expanding interdisciplinary field.

Established in 2019 by Professor Tunde Ope-Davies (also publishing as Opeibi), Nigeria's first Professor of Digital Humanities, CEDHUL stands as sub-Saharan Africa's pioneering dedicated digital humanities centre. Since its founding, the Centre has been the intellectual engine driving the integration of computational methods, critical theory, and humanistic inquiry across the African academy — hosting annual Summer Schools in Digital Humanities, digital entrepreneurship and cultures, building international research partnerships, advancing the paradigm-shifting framework of Afro-Centred Digital Humanities (ACDH), and placing Nigeria firmly on the global digital humanities map.

The launch of these postgraduate programmes marks a decisive turning point. Students enrolled in these programmes will engage with digital text analysis, corpus linguistics, computational approaches to African literature and languages, digital archiving and cultural heritage preservation, critical data studies, AI ethics in African contexts, and the theory and practice of digital scholarship. This is not merely an academic exercise — it is a preparation for leadership in the knowledge economy.

The launch aligns seamlessly with the "Future Ready Agenda" of Professor Folasade Ogunsola, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Lagos, whose transformative vision for UNILAG centres on preparing graduates to thrive in an increasingly technology-mediated world. The postgraduate digital humanities programmes are a direct institutional embodiment of that agenda — equipping humanities graduates with digital competencies, analytical skills, and interdisciplinary perspectives that are urgently demanded by the 21st-century competitive job market across the public, private, creative, and development sectors.

Programmes Offered

CEDHUL's track record lends compelling credibility to this announcement. Supported by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and Commonwealth fellowships, the Centre has produced internationally recognised scholarship, organised capacity-building Summer Schools attended by scholars from across Nigeria and the African continent, and pioneered research in Afro-Centred Digital Humanities, digital political discourse analysis, digital ecocriticism, and AI ethics in developing-economy contexts. The Centre's Fagunwa Digital Scholarly Edition project and its 50-million-word African Digital Ecocritical Discourse Corpus represent flagship initiatives that will directly anchor research training within these new programmes.

Prospective applicants — whether drawn from linguistics, literary studies, history, cultural studies, communication, library and information science, education, or the social sciences — are invited to look forward to a full prospectus and admissions information, to be released in the coming weeks. The University of Lagos and CEDHUL are committed to ensuring that these programmes are accessible, internationally competitive, and responsive to the evolving contours of Africa's digital present and digital future.