FG Orders Compulsory Ranking of Universities, Polytechnics, Colleges of Education

The Federal Government has announced plans to make participation in the national tertiary education ranking exercise compulsory for universities, polytechnics and colleges of education across Nigeria.

The Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, disclosed this on Tuesday in Abuja during a meeting with members of the Nigerian Universities Ranking Advisory Committee.

Following the expansion of the ranking exercise beyond universities, the committee has been renamed the Nigerian Tertiary Education Ranking Advisory Committee.

Alausa explained that the new framework was aimed at improving the quality and accountability of tertiary institutions while providing measurable standards for assessing institutional performance.

According to him, the ranking system will enable institutions to identify areas of weakness, monitor improvements and benchmark their performance against other institutions.

The minister said the 2026/2027 ranking exercise for universities is expected to begin in September, while the newly expanded committee will determine when polytechnics and colleges of education will be incorporated into the exercise.

He added that the Federal Government would issue formal guidelines to institutions and communicate the compulsory nature of the ranking exercise to vice-chancellors and heads of other tertiary institutions.

The exercise is expected to be funded through the Tertiary Education Trust Fund, with the Federal Ministry of Education providing policy direction, funding and capacity-building support.

Alausa said the initiative formed part of the education reforms of President Bola Tinubu’s administration under the Renewed Hope Agenda and the Nigeria Education Sector Renewal Initiative.

He further stated that the ministry would collaborate with the ranking committee to provide training and capacity-building programmes aimed at improving institutions’ ability to participate effectively in the ranking process.

The Minister of State for Education, Prof. Suwaiba Ahmad, described the development as an important step towards improving accountability and maintaining quality across the tertiary education sector.

She stressed the importance of healthy competition among institutions, noting that rankings could encourage universities, polytechnics and colleges of education to identify shortcomings and work towards measurable improvements.

Ahmad also said both public and private institutions should be covered by the ranking framework, arguing that a unified system would help establish consistent standards across the sector.

Chairman of the ranking advisory committee and former Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission, Emeritus Prof. Peter Okebukola, said the committee had initially approached the minister to advocate increased investment in university education.

According to him, the government’s response went beyond the committee’s original proposal by extending the ranking framework to polytechnics and colleges of education.

The expanded mandate subsequently led to the transformation of the Nigerian Universities Ranking Advisory Committee into the Nigerian Tertiary Education Ranking Advisory Committee.