Alausa Makes Tertiary Ranking Compulsory For Universities, Polytechnics, Colleges

The Minister of Education, Dr. Maruf Tunji Alausa, has announced that participation in Nigeria’s national tertiary education ranking framework is now compulsory for all universities, polytechnics and colleges of education across the country.

Alausa made the announcement in Abuja during a meeting with the Nigerian Universities Ranking Advisory Committee, which will now be known as the Nigerian Tertiary Education Ranking Advisory Committee.

The minister said the decision to expand the ranking framework was in line with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s education reforms under the Renewed Hope Agenda, being driven through the Nigeria Education Sector Renewal Initiative.

According to him, the expanded framework is designed to strengthen quality, accountability, institutional performance and global competitiveness across the tertiary education system.

He noted that the ranking will provide institutions with clear benchmarks to assess their performance, identify areas for improvement and measure progress, while also encouraging healthy competition and continuous advancement.

Alausa disclosed that the 2026/2027 ranking exercise for universities will commence in September, while the advisory committee will determine the appropriate timeline for extending the exercise to polytechnics and colleges of education.

He added that the Federal Government will provide funding for the exercise through the Tertiary Education Trust Fund(TETFUND ) and will develop guidelines to institutionalise the process.

The minister said formal communication will be sent to vice-chancellors and heads of other tertiary institutions to notify them that participation in the ranking is compulsory.

Also speaking. the minister of State for Education, Prof. Suwaiba Sa’id Ahmad, described the initiative as a significant step towards strengthening accountability and quality in tertiary education.
She said healthy competition is essential for encouraging institutions to assess their performance, address gaps and consistently improve the quality of education they deliver.

Suwaiba stressed that the ranking exercise should cover both public and private institutions in order to establish and maintain minimum standards across the sector.
She assured the committee of the Ministry’s full support and said the exercise will help institutions understand their strengths and weaknesses as the system continues to expand.

In his remark, Emeritus Prof. Peter Okebukola, Chairman of the Nigerian Universities Ranking Advisory Committee and former Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission(NUC) said the committee’s engagement with the Minister followed a memorandum congratulating the Tinubu administration on the increasing number of Nigerian universities gaining global recognition and calling for greater investment in university education.
Okebukola noted that the Minister’s response went beyond the committee’s initial proposal by expanding the mandate to cover polytechnics and colleges of education and transforming the committee into the Nigerian Tertiary Education Ranking Advisory Committee.

He expressed optimism that sustained investment, stronger institutional capacity and the new national ranking framework will enable more Nigerian institutions to achieve significant progress in international rankings.