The Department of Chemical Engineering was established in 1973, when Chemical Engineering and Surveying became the first departments added to the Faculty of Engineering after its three founding departments — Civil, Electrical and Mechanical Engineering — opened with the Faculty in the 1964/65 academic year.

The Faculty itself was founded on the recommendation of the Ashby Commission of 1959, which supported the establishment of a university in Lagos. Lagos was chosen for a faculty of engineering because of its large population and rapidly developing industrial activities, which made it the country’s largest centre of engineering activity and an ideal setting in which to train engineers.

The Department offers a five-year undergraduate programme leading to the Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering. In common with all engineering programmes in the Faculty, it is accredited by the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN).

Because Nigeria is a developing country, graduates of the Faculty are given a wider range of general engineering education than is customary in long-established industrial communities — equipping them to operate and develop the public services, to initiate and carry out engineering designs, to engage in industrial management, and to pursue development and research.