FG makes national ranking compulsory for universities, polytechnics, colleges of education

The Federal Government has expanded Nigeria’s national tertiary education ranking framework to cover universities, polytechnics and colleges of education, making participation compulsory for all tertiary institutions across the country.

Maruf Tunji Alausa, Minister of Education, announced the development in Abuja during a meeting with the Nigerian Universities Ranking Advisory Committee (NURAC), which has now been expanded and renamed the Nigerian Tertiary Education Ranking Advisory Committee.

According to a statement signed by Ikharo Attah, Special Adviser on Media and Communications to the Minister, Alausa said the expanded ranking framework formed part of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s education reforms under the Renewed Hope Agenda and was being implemented through the Nigeria Education Sector Renewal Initiative (NESRI).

He said the initiative was designed to strengthen quality, accountability, institutional performance and global competitiveness across Nigeria’s tertiary education system.

Alausa explained that the ranking would provide tertiary institutions with clear benchmarks for assessing their performance, identifying areas requiring improvement and measuring progress, while promoting healthy competition and continuous institutional development.

The Minister disclosed that 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 Federal Government would provide funding for the exercise through the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), develop guidelines to institutionalise the ranking and formally communicate to vice-chancellors and heads of other tertiary institutions that participation would be compulsory.

Speaking earlier, Suwaiba Sa’id Ahmad, Minister of State for Education, described the expansion as a significant step towards strengthening accountability and quality across the tertiary education sector.

She said healthy competition would encourage institutions to assess their performance, identify gaps and consistently improve the quality of education they provide.

Suwaiba stressed that the ranking should cover both public and private institutions, noting that it would provide a mechanism for establishing and maintaining minimum standards across the sector.

She assured the committee of the Ministry’s support, saying the exercise would help institutions understand their strengths and weaknesses and drive measurable improvements as Nigeria’s tertiary education system expands.

Also speaking, Peter Okebukola, Chairman of the Nigerian Universities Ranking Advisory Committee and former Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC), said the committee’s engagement with the Minister followed a memorandum congratulating the Tinubu administration on the growing number of Nigerian universities gaining international recognition.

Okebukola said the committee had also called for greater investment in university education to accelerate the progress recorded in global rankings.

He, however, said the Minister’s response went beyond the committee’s initial proposal by expanding NURAC’s mandate to include polytechnics and colleges of education.

He expressed optimism that sustained investment, stronger institutional capacity and the new national ranking framework would enable more Nigerian tertiary institutions to make significant gains in international rankings and compete more effectively with leading institutions globally.

Alausa further pledged that the Federal Ministry of Education would provide the policy direction, funding and capacity-building support required to make the ranking exercise credible, sustainable and impactful.

He said the Ministry would work with the committee to facilitate in-service training and institutional capacity-building programmes across tertiary institutions.

The Minister expressed the expectation that the reforms would lead to significantly more Nigerian institutions achieving greater global recognition in subsequent international ranking exercises.

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