Nigerian nurse returns to school 50 years after starting career, earns degree and full UK scholarship
A Nigerian nurse has achieved an extraordinary academic milestone, returning to formal education more than five decades after beginning her professional career and securing a fully funded scholarship to study in the United Kingdom.
Solape Adeyemo, from south-west Nigeria, spent over 50 years working as a registered nurse in the state civil service. When a policy change meant that promotion beyond Grade Level 14 required a bachelor’s degree, Mrs Adeyemo—then already in her fifties—decided to resume her education from the very beginning.
She re-sat the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE), gained admission to the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN), and completed a Bachelor of Nursing Science degree with Second Class Honours (Upper Division). Despite facing scepticism from those around her, she remained undeterred.
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After graduation, she obtained a Postgraduate Diploma in Education and, in 2014, was awarded the prestigious Commonwealth Shared Scholarship. The fully funded award enabled her to pursue a Master of Science in Healthcare Management and Leadership at Sheffield Hallam University in the UK, which she completed with Merit in 2016.
Now retired from clinical service, Mrs Adeyemo is finalising a PhD in Nursing at a university in South Africa while working as a nursing lecturer.
Her son, Oluwaferanmi Adeyemo, who himself won the Commonwealth Shared Scholarship in 2020, described his mother as an enduring source of inspiration, saying her determination had shown him that “there is no expiry date on ambition.”
Mrs Adeyemo’s journey has been widely celebrated across Nigeria and beyond as a powerful example of lifelong learning and professional resilience in the nursing profession.
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