The Federal Government has made participation in Nigeria’s national tertiary institutions ranking exercise compulsory for all universities, polytechnics and colleges of education in the country. The Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, who announced the policy in Abuja, said the expansion of the ranking framework was designed to strengthen accountability, improve institutional performance and enhance... The post Alausa Makes Tertiary Ranking Compulsory For Varsities, Polytechnics, CoEs appear
The Federal Government has made participation in Nigeria’s national tertiary institutions ranking exercise compulsory for all universities, polytechnics and colleges of education in the country.
The Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, who announced the policy in Abuja, said the expansion of the ranking framework was designed to strengthen accountability, improve institutional performance and enhance the global competitiveness of Nigeria’s tertiary education system.
Alausa spoke at a meeting with the Nigerian Universities Ranking Advisory Committee (NURAC), which has now been expanded and renamed the Nigerian Tertiary Education Ranking Advisory Committee to reflect its broader mandate.
The Minister said the development formed part of President Bola Tinubu’s education reforms under the Renewed Hope Agenda, being implemented through the Nigeria Education Sector Renewal Initiative (NESRI).
In a statement signed by his Special Adviser on Media and Communications, Ikharo Attah, he explained that the ranking exercise would provide institutions with clear benchmarks for assessing their performance, identifying areas of weakness and measuring improvements over time.
According to him, the framework would also encourage healthy competition among institutions and promote continuous improvement in the quality of teaching, research and other areas of institutional performance.
Alausa announced 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 said the Federal Government would provide funding for the exercise through the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), while guidelines would be developed to institutionalise the ranking system.
The Minister added that the Federal Ministry of Education would formally communicate the compulsory nature of the exercise to vice-chancellors and heads of other tertiary institutions.
Speaking earlier, the Minister of State for Education, Professor Suwaiba Ahmad, described the initiative as a major step towards strengthening accountability and quality assurance across the tertiary education sector.
She said healthy competition would compel institutions to critically assess their performance, identify gaps and take concrete steps towards improving the quality of education they provide.
Suwaiba stressed that both public and private institutions should be covered by the ranking exercise, arguing 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 enable institutions to better understand their strengths and weaknesses while driving measurable improvements in Nigeria’s rapidly expanding tertiary education system.
Also speaking, Chairman of the Nigerian Universities Ranking Advisory Committee and former Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC), Emeritus Prof. Peter Okebukola, said the committee’s meeting with the Minister followed a memorandum congratulating the Tinubu administration on the increasing number of Nigerian universities gaining international recognition.
Okebukola said the committee had, in its memorandum, urged the government to increase investment in university education to accelerate the progress being recorded by Nigerian institutions.
He, however, disclosed that the Minister’s response went beyond the committee’s original proposal by expanding its mandate to cover polytechnics and colleges of education.
He said this resulted in the transformation of NURAC into the Nigerian Tertiary Education Ranking Advisory Committee.
Okebukola expressed optimism that sustained investment, stronger institutional capacity and the new national ranking framework would enable more Nigerian tertiary institutions to improve their positions in international rankings and compete more effectively with leading institutions globally.
