ABUJA, Nigeria – The Federal Government has announced a comprehensive restructuring and expansion of Nigeria’s national tertiary education ranking framework, making institutional participation mandatory for all public and private universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education across the country, the Ministry of Education confirmed on Tuesday, September 1, 2026.
The policy announcement followed high-level consultative engagements led by the Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, alongside the Minister of State for Education, Dr. Suwaiba Said Ahmad, executive leadership from the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), and the Nigerian University Ranking Advisory Committee (NURAC).
Okay News reports that the initiative comes in the wake of the Times Higher Education (THE) 2026 World University Rankings, which featured 24 Nigerian universities, prompting federal authorities to strengthen indigenous benchmarking systems tailored to national developmental realities.
Under the new framework, the advisory body will formally transition from NURAC to the Nigerian Tertiary Education Ranking Advisory Committee (NTERAC), broadening its operational mandate beyond degree-awarding universities to include technical polytechnics, monotechnics, and teacher training colleges of education.
Dr. Alausa disclosed that the initiative, executed with strategic funding and technical backing from TETFund, aims to develop a robust, credible ranking model capable of serving as a continental benchmark across Africa while strengthening the global competitiveness of Nigerian scholars and institutions.
“For years, we have looked to international rankings to tell us how our universities are performing,” Alausa stated. “These rankings are important, but we also need a system that understands our own institutions, our environment and our priorities. That is what we are building.”
The Minister explained that NTERAC, chaired by distinguished academic Professor Peter Okebukola, will institutionalize data standardization protocols, capacity-building workshops, and technical assistance for institutional leaders to ensure transparent methodologies.
To ensure seamless accessibility and centralized reporting, the national ranking system will be integrated into the digital Nigeria Education Data Initiative (NEDI) portal, providing a unified repository of academic performance metrics, research output, faculty-to-student ratios, and infrastructure assessments.
“This is important because strengthening our own system will help our institutions to perform better internationally,” Alausa added. “By improving how we collect, report and use institutional data, we can support more Nigerian universities to compete for recognition on global ranking systems such as Times Higher Education and others.”
Directing Vice-Chancellors, Rectors, and Provosts across the federation to ensure full institutional compliance, the Minister reiterated the Federal Government’s commitment under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to build world-class tertiary institutions capable of rivaling leading global academic centres.
