By Jennete Ugo Anya
Nigeria is set to introduce a broader national ranking system for tertiary institutions as the Federal Government (FG) moves to place universities, polytechnics and colleges of education under a common framework for measuring institutional performance.
The Honourable Minister of Education, Dr. Maruf Tunji Alausa, recently announced the expansion in Abuja during a meeting with the Nigerian Universities Ranking Advisory Committee (NURAC), which will now operate as the Nigerian Tertiary Education Ranking Advisory Committee.
The initiative makes participation in the national ranking exercise compulsory for all tertiary institutions, including public and private institutions.
According to Dr. Alausa, the expanded framework forms part of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s education reforms under the Renewed Hope Agenda and is being implemented through the Nigeria Education Sector Renewal Initiative (NESRI).
The Minister said the ranking would give institutions clear benchmarks for measuring their performance, identifying weaknesses and tracking improvements over time.
He stated that the exercise was designed to promote healthy competition while strengthening quality, accountability and the international competitiveness of Nigeria’s tertiary education system.
The 2026/2027 ranking exercise for universities is scheduled to begin in September. The committee will determine when polytechnics and colleges of education will be incorporated into the exercise.
For the FG, the ranking is also expected to become an institutional tool for driving improvements rather than merely a system for comparing schools.
Dr. Alausa said the government would provide funding through the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), develop guidelines to institutionalise the exercise and formally notify vice-chancellors and heads of other tertiary institutions that participation is mandatory.
The Minister of State for Education, Professor (Prof.) Suwaiba Sa’id Ahmad, described the initiative as a major step towards strengthening accountability and quality across the sector.
She argued that healthy competition would encourage institutions to examine their performance, address weaknesses and continuously improve the quality of education they offer.
Prof. Suwaiba stressed the importance of including both public and private institutions, noting that a comprehensive ranking system could help establish and maintain minimum standards across Nigeria’s expanding tertiary education landscape.
Her position places the ranking exercise within a broader quality assurance agenda. Rather than limiting institutional assessment to universities, the new framework is intended to provide a common basis for evaluating performance across the different categories of tertiary institutions.
The expansion followed an intervention by Emeritus Prof. Peter Okebukola, Chairman of the former NURAC and former Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC).
Prof. Okebukola said the committee had initially submitted a memorandum congratulating the Tinubu administration over the growing number of Nigerian universities receiving international recognition. It also called for greater investment in university education to sustain the momentum.
However, the Minister’s response went further than the committee had proposed.
According to Prof. Okebukola, Dr. Alausa expanded NURAC’s mandate to include polytechnics and colleges of education, leading to its transformation into the Nigerian Tertiary Education Ranking Advisory Committee.
The development comes at a time when the international visibility of Nigerian higher education institutions is receiving greater attention. For the FG, improving global recognition will require more than the performance of a handful of institutions. It will depend on building stronger systems, institutional capacity and measurable standards across the wider tertiary education sector.
Prof. Okebukola expressed optimism that sustained investment, stronger institutional capacity and the new national framework would enable more Nigerian institutions to improve their positions in international rankings and compete more effectively with leading institutions globally.
Dr. Alausa also pledged policy, funding and capacity-building support from the Federal Ministry of Education to ensure that the ranking system remains credible and sustainable.
The Ministry, he said, would work with the committee to provide in-service training and institutional capacity-building programmes across tertiary institutions.
The expectation is that the exercise will give institutions a clearer understanding of where they stand, what needs to change and how progress can be measured.
