By Chinenye Onwusonye
The Federal Government has expanded Nigeria’s national tertiary education ranking framework to cover universities, polytechnics and colleges of education, the Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, has announced.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, September 1, 2026, in Abuja and signed by Mr Ikharo Attah, Special Adviser to the Minister on Media and Communications, Alausa said participation in the ranking exercise would now be compulsory for all tertiary institutions.
The minister said the expanded framework was part of President Bola Tinubu’s education reforms under the Renewed Hope Agenda, being implemented through the Nigeria Education Sector Renewal Initiative (NESRI).
According to him, the initiative is aimed at strengthening quality, accountability, institutional performance and global competitiveness across Nigeria’s tertiary education system.
“The ranking will provide institutions with clear benchmarks for assessing their performance, identifying areas requiring improvement and measuring progress, while promoting healthy competition and continuous institutional advancement,” Alausa said.
He 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.
Alausa added that the Federal Government would provide funding for the exercise through the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund).
He said TETFund would develop guidelines to institutionalise the ranking and formally communicate to vice-chancellors and heads of other tertiary institutions that participation was compulsory.
The minister also assured the Nigerian Universities Ranking Advisory Committee (NURAC) of the ministry’s commitment to providing the policy direction, funding and capacity-building support required to make the 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, with the expectation that more Nigerian institutions would gain greater recognition in subsequent international ranking exercises.
The Minister of State for Education, Prof. Suwaiba Ahmad, described the initiative as a significant step towards strengthening accountability and quality across the tertiary education system.
Ahmad said healthy competition would encourage institutions to assess their performance, address identified gaps and consistently improve the quality of education they provide.
She added that the ranking should cover both public and private institutions to provide a mechanism for establishing and maintaining minimum standards across the sector.
Also, Chairman of NURAC, Emeritus Prof. Peter Okebukola, congratulated President Tinubu on the increasing number of Nigerian universities gaining global recognition and called for greater investment in university education.
Okebukola, a former Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC), said the committee’s mandate had now been expanded to cover polytechnics and colleges of education, leading to its transformation into the Nigerian Tertiary Education Ranking Advisory Committee.
He expressed optimism that sustained investment, stronger institutional capacity and the new national ranking framework would enable more Nigerian institutions to make significant progress in international rankings and compete more confidently with leading institutions globally.
