The Federal Government has expanded Nigeria’s national tertiary education ranking system to cover universities, polytechnics and colleges of education, with participation in the exercise now set to become mandatory for institutions across the sector.
The move is aimed at establishing a common framework for measuring institutional performance, strengthening accountability and improving the quality and global competitiveness of Nigeria’s tertiary education system.
The Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, announced the policy on Tuesday in Abuja during a meeting with members of the Nigerian Universities Ranking Advisory Committee (NURAC).
The committee has consequently been expanded and renamed the Nigerian Tertiary Education Ranking Advisory Committee, reflecting its broader mandate to assess performance across the country’s tertiary institutions.
Alausa said the expanded ranking framework would promote “quality, accountability, institutional performance and global competitiveness” across the sector.
He explained that a national ranking system would provide institutions with measurable standards against which they could assess their performance, identify weaknesses and monitor improvements over time.
According to him, the exercise would also encourage healthy competition among institutions and motivate them to improve their academic and administrative standards.
“The ranking would provide institutions with clear benchmarks for assessing their performance, identifying areas requiring improvement and measuring progress,” he said.
Under the new framework, universities, polytechnics and colleges of education will eventually operate under a unified national ranking system.
The Federal Government is expected to finance the exercise through the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), while the Ministry of Education will provide the necessary policy direction and institutional support.
Alausa said the ranking exercise for universities for the 2026/2027 cycle would begin in September.
He added that the newly constituted committee would determine an appropriate timeline for extending the exercise to polytechnics and colleges of education.
“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 said.
The minister further disclosed that the government would develop guidelines to formally institutionalise the ranking system.
He said vice-chancellors, rectors, provosts and heads of other tertiary institutions would be formally informed that participation in the exercise would be compulsory.
“The government would develop guidelines to institutionalise the exercise and formally communicate to vice-chancellors and heads of other tertiary institutions that participation was compulsory,” Alausa said.
Part of Tinubu’s education reforms
The minister said the initiative formed part of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s ongoing education reforms under the Renewed Hope Agenda, particularly through the Nigeria Education Sector Renewal Initiative.
He said the Federal Ministry of Education would provide the policy direction, funding and capacity-building support necessary to ensure that the ranking exercise was credible, sustainable and capable of producing meaningful outcomes.
Alausa also pledged greater collaboration with the ranking committee to strengthen the capacity of tertiary institutions to participate effectively.
According to him, the ministry would facilitate in-service training and institutional capacity-building programmes across the sector, with the broader objective of enabling more Nigerian institutions to achieve international recognition.
Private institutions included
The Minister of State for Education, Professor Suwaiba Ahmad, described the expansion as a significant step towards strengthening accountability and quality assurance within Nigeria’s tertiary education system.
She said competition among institutions could serve as an incentive for continuous improvement, provided it was based on credible and transparent performance indicators.
“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.
Suwaiba stressed that the ranking exercise should cover both public and private institutions, arguing that a comprehensive system would enable the government and institutions to establish and maintain minimum standards across the tertiary education sector.
She said the exercise would help institutions understand their strengths and weaknesses while providing measurable indicators for tracking improvements.
Committee’s mandate expanded
Chairman of the ranking advisory committee and former Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission, Emeritus Professor Peter Okebukola, said the development followed an engagement between the committee and the education minister.
Okebukola said the committee had initially submitted a memorandum congratulating the Tinubu administration over the increasing number of Nigerian universities gaining visibility and recognition in international rankings.
The committee also called for increased investment in university education to consolidate the gains recorded by Nigerian institutions.
However, according to Okebukola, the minister went beyond the committee’s initial proposal by expanding its mandate to include polytechnics and colleges of education.
The development led to the transformation of NURAC into the Nigerian Tertiary Education Ranking Advisory Committee.
Okebukola expressed optimism that sustained investment, improved institutional capacity and the new national framework would enable more Nigerian tertiary institutions to improve their positions in global rankings.
He said the framework would provide institutions with clearer targets and enable them to compete more effectively with leading institutions internationally.
Pressure to improve global standing
The new policy comes against the backdrop of increasing pressure on Nigerian tertiary institutions to improve their performance in international rankings.
Global ranking systems typically assess institutions using indicators including research output, academic reputation, research citations, international outlook, teaching environment and institutional resources.
While an increasing number of Nigerian universities have appeared in international rankings, the sector continues to face significant challenges.
These include inadequate and inconsistent funding, limited research capacity, infrastructure deficits, shortages of qualified academic staff and difficulties in attracting and retaining top researchers.
The expansion of the national ranking exercise beyond universities is therefore expected to introduce a broader system for measuring performance across Nigeria’s entire tertiary education landscape.
Polytechnics and colleges of education, which play major roles in technical, vocational and teacher education, will now be brought into a national performance-monitoring framework alongside universities.
The compulsory nature of the exercise also represents a shift from a largely voluntary approach to one in which institutions will be required to participate and provide relevant institutional data.
The government is expected to use the outcome of the exercise to identify areas requiring intervention, encourage institutional improvement and strengthen accountability within the tertiary education system.
