The Federal Government has made participation in Nigeria’s national tertiary education ranking exercise compulsory for all universities, polytechnics and colleges of education.
The Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, announced the decision on Tuesday in Abuja during a meeting with the Nigerian Universities Ranking Advisory Committee, which has now been expanded and renamed the Nigerian Tertiary Education Ranking Advisory Committee.
Alausa said the expanded ranking framework was designed to strengthen quality, accountability, institutional performance and global competitiveness across Nigeria’s tertiary education system. He explained that the exercise would provide institutions with clear benchmarks for assessing their performance, identifying areas that require improvement and measuring their progress, while also encouraging healthy competition among institutions.
Under the new arrangement, universities, polytechnics and colleges of education will be assessed under a unified national ranking framework, with the Federal Government expected to fund 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.
The minister said 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. He added that 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 Federal Ministry of Education would provide policy direction, funding and capacity-building support to ensure the ranking exercise was credible and sustainable.
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 said healthy competition would encourage institutions to assess their performance, address identified gaps and improve the quality of education they provide.
Meanwhile, the chairman of the ranking advisory committee, Emeritus Professor Peter Okebukola, expressed optimism that sustained investment, stronger institutional capacity and the new national ranking framework would enable more Nigerian institutions to gain recognition and compete with leading institutions globally.
