The Federal Government has made participation in Nigeria’s national tertiary education ranking exercise compulsory for all universities, polytechnics and colleges of education, in a major expansion of the system beyond universities.
Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, announced the policy Tuesday in Abuja during a meeting with the Nigerian Universities Ranking Advisory Committee (NURAC), which has been expanded and renamed the Nigerian Tertiary Education Ranking Advisory Committee.
Alausa said the new framework was aimed at improving quality, accountability, institutional performance and global competitiveness across Nigeria’s tertiary education sector.
According to him, the ranking would provide institutions with clear benchmarks for measuring performance, identifying weaknesses and tracking improvements, while promoting healthy competition among institutions.
Under the new arrangement, universities, polytechnics and colleges of education will participate in a unified national ranking system, with the Federal Government expected to fund the exercise through the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund).
Alausa said the 2026/2027 ranking exercise for universities would begin in September, while the committee would determine when the exercise would be extended to polytechnics and colleges of education.
He added that the government would issue guidelines to institutionalise the ranking system and formally notify vice-chancellors and heads of other tertiary institutions that participation would be compulsory.
The minister said the policy formed part of President Bola Tinubu’s education reforms under the Renewed Hope Agenda, being implemented through the Nigeria Education Sector Renewal Initiative.
He also pledged that the Ministry of Education would provide the policy direction, funding and capacity-building support needed to make the ranking exercise credible and sustainable.
Alausa said the ministry would work with the committee to provide in-service training and institutional capacity-building programmes to help more Nigerian institutions improve their standing nationally and internationally.
The Minister of State for Education, Prof. Suwaiba Ahmad, described the initiative as a major step towards strengthening accountability and quality in the tertiary education system.
She said the ranking should cover both public and private institutions and serve as a mechanism for establishing and maintaining minimum standards across the sector.
“Healthy competition is essential to encouraging institutions to assess their performance, address identified gaps and consistently improve the quality of education they provide,” Ahmad said.
Chairman of the ranking advisory committee and former Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC), Prof. Peter Okebukola, said the committee’s engagement with the minister followed a memorandum congratulating the Tinubu administration on the growing number of Nigerian universities securing places in global rankings.
Okebukola said the committee had also advocated increased investment in university education to accelerate the gains being recorded.
He noted that the minister went beyond the committee’s initial proposal by expanding NURAC’s mandate to include polytechnics and colleges of education, leading to the creation of the Nigerian Tertiary Education Ranking Advisory Committee.
Okebukola expressed optimism that sustained investment, stronger institutional capacity and the new national framework would enable more Nigerian institutions to compete successfully with leading universities globally.
The policy comes amid growing pressure on Nigerian tertiary institutions to improve their performance in international rankings, which assess factors including research output, academic reputation, citations, international outlook and institutional resources.
Despite the increasing presence of Nigerian universities in global rankings, the sector continues to face challenges including inadequate funding, weak research capacity, poor infrastructure, staffing constraints and limited resources.
By making participation compulsory and extending the exercise to polytechnics and colleges of education, the Federal Government is seeking to establish a coordinated system for measuring institutional performance and driving improvements across the entire tertiary education sector.
