The Nigerian Government has expanded Nigeria’s national tertiary education ranking framework to polytechnics and colleges of education, with participation to be compulsory for tertiary institutions.
The Minister of Education, Dr Maruf Tunji Alausa, announced the expansion in Abuja at a meeting with the Nigerian Universities Ranking Advisory Committee (NURAC), which will now be known as the Nigerian Tertiary Education Ranking Advisory Committee.
Alausa explained that the expanded framework was part of the Nigerian Government’s education reforms under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda and was being advanced through the Nigeria Education Sector Renewal Initiative (NESRI).
He said the ranking would provide institutions with benchmarks for assessing their performance, identifying areas requiring improvement and measuring progress.
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Alausa announced that the 2026/2027 ranking exercise for universities would commence in September, while the committee would determine the timeline for extending the exercise to polytechnics and colleges of education.
He disclosed that the Nigerian Government would provide funding through the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), develop guidelines for the exercise and formally communicate to vice-chancellors and heads of other tertiary institutions that participation in the ranking process would be compulsory.
The Minister of State for Education, Professor Suwaiba Sa’id Ahmad, said the initiative would strengthen accountability and quality across Nigeria’s tertiary education system.
She said competition among institutions could encourage them to assess their performance, address identified gaps and improve the quality of education they provide.
Suwaiba stressed that the ranking exercise 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 make measurable improvements.
Also speaking, Emeritus Professor Peter Okebukola, Chairman of the Nigerian Universities Ranking Advisory Committee and former Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC), said the committee had also urged greater investment in university education to accelerate progress.
According to him, the minister’s response went beyond the committee’s initial proposal, resulting in the expansion of the committee’s mandate to cover polytechnics and colleges of education.
He expressed optimism that sustained investment, stronger institutional capacity and the expanded ranking framework would enable more Nigerian institutions to improve their positions in international rankings.
