Bowen University is a private university founded by the Nigerian Baptist Convention in 2001. It was named after Thomas Bowen, the American missionary whose work in the 1850s started Nigeria＊s network of hundreds of Baptist schools.
The university enrolled its first 506 students on its campus on the south side of Iwo, Osun State.
It initially offered courses in agriculture, science, education and social and management sciences. It added humanities and law in 2011, nursing and physiotherapy in 2015 and medicine in 2016.
Some 14 new courses were introduced in 2021 which took the total number to 41 degree options across seven colleges.
Campus traditions include "one-day v-c" under which a chosen student does the job of the vice chancellor for 24 hours.
