The Federal Government has made participation in Nigeria’s national tertiary education ranking exercise compulsory for all universities, polytechnics and colleges of education, expanding the initiative beyond universities for the first time.
The Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, announced the policy on Tuesday in Abuja during a meeting with the Nigerian Universities Ranking Advisory Committee (NURAC).
Following the expansion of its mandate, the committee has been renamed the Nigerian Tertiary Education Ranking Advisory Committee.
Alausa explained that the broader ranking framework is intended to promote “quality, accountability, institutional performance and global competitiveness” throughout Nigeria’s tertiary education system.
He said the ranking would give institutions “clear benchmarks for assessing their performance, identifying areas requiring improvement and measuring progress,” while also promoting healthy competition among institutions.
Under the new framework, universities, polytechnics and colleges of education will participate in a unified national ranking system. The Federal Government is expected to finance the exercise through the Tertiary Education Trust Fund.
Alausa said, “The 2026/2027 ranking exercise for universities would commence in September, while the committee would determine the appropriate timeline for extending the exercise to polytechnics and colleges of education.”
He added that “the government would develop guidelines to institutionalise the exercise and formally communicate to vice-chancellancellors and heads of other tertiary institutions that participation was compulsory.”
Policy Part of Tinubu’s Education Reforms
The minister said the initiative forms part of President Bola Tinubu’s education reforms under the Renewed Hope Agenda, which are being implemented through the Nigeria Education Sector Renewal Initiative.
He also assured stakeholders that the Federal Ministry of Education would provide the “policy direction, funding and capacity-building support” needed to ensure that the ranking exercise is credible, sustainable and effective.
According to Alausa, the ministry will collaborate with the advisory committee to provide “in-service training and institutional capacity-building programmes across tertiary institutions.”
The goal, he said, is to strengthen institutional performance and help more Nigerian tertiary institutions achieve greater recognition internationally.
The Minister of State for Education, Professor Suwaiba Ahmad, described the initiative as “a significant step towards strengthening accountability and quality across Nigeria’s tertiary education system.”
She stressed that healthy competition would encourage institutions to evaluate their performance, identify weaknesses and take steps to improve.
“Healthy competition is essential to encouraging institutions to assess their performance, address identified gaps and consistently improve the quality of education they provide,” she said.
Ahmad also said the ranking exercise should include both public and private institutions, arguing that a comprehensive system would help establish and maintain minimum standards across Nigeria’s tertiary education sector.
She noted that the process would enable institutions to better understand their “strengths and weaknesses” while driving measurable improvements as the sector continues to grow.
Ranking Committee Expands Its Mandate
Emeritus Professor Peter Okebukola, chairman of the ranking advisory committee and former Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission, said the committee’s meeting with Alausa followed a memorandum congratulating the Tinubu administration on the growing number of Nigerian universities receiving recognition in global rankings.
According to Okebukola, the committee had also urged the government to increase investment in university education to accelerate the progress already recorded.
However, he said the minister’s response went further than the committee’s initial recommendation by expanding the committee’s responsibilities to include polytechnics and colleges of education.
This led to the transformation of NURAC into the Nigerian Tertiary Education Ranking Advisory Committee.
Okebukola expressed confidence that “sustained investment, stronger institutional capacity and the new national ranking framework” would help more Nigerian institutions improve their positions in international rankings.
He added that the framework would enable Nigerian institutions to “compete confidently with leading institutions globally.”
New Ranking System Targets Quality and Competitiveness
The policy comes as Nigerian tertiary institutions face growing pressure to improve their standing in international rankings.
Global university rankings typically consider factors such as research output, academic reputation, citations, international outlook and institutional resources when assessing universities.
While an increasing number of Nigerian universities have earned spots on international ranking tables, challenges remain, including inadequate funding, limited research capacity, infrastructure gaps, staffing constraints and difficulties competing with better-funded institutions around the world.
By extending the national ranking exercise to polytechnics and colleges of education, the Federal Government is seeking to create a broader and more coordinated system for measuring institutional performance across Nigeria’s tertiary education sector.
Making participation compulsory also represents a shift from voluntary involvement to a system where institutions will be required to submit relevant data and engage with nationally established performance benchmarks.
