Abuja: The Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, has expanded Nigeria’s national tertiary education ranking framework to encompass universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education. This development was announced during a meeting with the Nigerian Universities Ranking Advisory Committee (NURAC), where it was declared that participation in the ranking is now mandatory for all tertiary institutions.
According to News Agency of Nigeria, the expansion of the ranking framework is part of President Bola Tinubu’s education reforms under the Renewed Hope Agenda, implemented through the Nigeria Education Sector Renewal Initiative (NESRI). The initiative aims to enhance quality, accountability, institutional performance, and global competitiveness within Nigeria’s tertiary education system.
Dr. Alausa stated that the ranking would provide institutions with clear benchmarks for evaluating their performance, identifying areas needing improvement, and measuring progress, while fostering healthy competition and continuous institutional advancement. The ranking exercise for universities is set to begin in September 2026, with the timeline for polytechnics and colleges of education to be determined by the committee.
The Federal Government will fund the exercise through the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), which will also develop guidelines to institutionalize the ranking and formally communicate the compulsory participation to vice-chancellors and heads of other tertiary institutions. Dr. Alausa reassured the committee of the ministry’s commitment to providing policy direction, funding, and capacity-building support to ensure the ranking exercise is credible, sustainable, and impactful.
The Ministry of Education plans to collaborate with the committee to facilitate in-service training and institutional capacity-building programs, with the goal that more Nigerian institutions will achieve greater global recognition in future international ranking exercises. Dr. Alausa reiterated the ministry’s commitment to making the ranking framework a credible tool for driving quality, accountability, and continuous improvement in Nigeria’s tertiary education sector.
Minister of State for Education, Prof. Suwaiba Ahmad, described the initiative as a significant step toward strengthening accountability and quality across the tertiary education system. She emphasized the importance of healthy competition to encourage institutions to assess performance, address gaps, and consistently improve education quality. Prof. Ahmad assured the committee of the ministry’s full support, highlighting that the exercise would help institutions understand their strengths and weaknesses and drive measurable improvements as the nation’s tertiary education system continues to grow.
Emeritus Prof. Peter Okebukola, Chairman of NURAC, congratulated President Tinubu on the increasing global recognition of Nigerian universities. He called for greater investment in university education to accelerate progress. The committee’s mandate has now been expanded to include polytechnics and colleges of education, leading to its transformation into the Nigerian Tertiary Education Ranking Advisory Committee. Prof. Okebukola expressed optimism that sustained investment, stronger institutional capacity, and the new national ranking framework would enable more Nigerian institutions to advance in international rankings and compete more confidently with leading institutions globally.