By Daniel Oluwatobiloba Popoola
The Federal Government has begun a nationwide ranking of universities, polytechnics and colleges of education, with the exercise expected to provide a domestic benchmark for measuring institutional performance and identifying gaps across Nigeria’s tertiary education system.
The Nigerian Tertiary Education Ranking Advisory Committee, under the Federal Ministry of Education, is coordinating the exercise, which will assess universities using 22 indicators and rank the three major categories of tertiary institutions before Tuesday, 15 December, 2026.
Chairman of NiTERAC, Prof. Peter Okebukola, disclosed this in a presentation on Nigeria’s performance in the 2027 Times Higher Education World University Rankings dated September 30, 2026.
Okebukola said the national ranking followed a directive from the Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, and was designed to stimulate healthy competition among public and private tertiary institutions while strengthening Nigeria’s position in global rankings.
“As directed by the Honourable Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, the Nigerian Tertiary Education Ranking Advisory Committee has started the process of the 2026 ranking of Nigerian universities, polytechnics and colleges of education,” he said.
He explained that the university ranking would be based on 22 indicators, with the weightings agreed with the League of Directors of Academic Planning.
“The national ranking is intended to stimulate healthy internal competition among Nigerian tertiary institutions and to position the Nigerian tertiary education system for improved global ranking in the coming years,” Okebukola said.
He added that the three subsector rankings were scheduled for completion before December 15, 2026, with the exercise involving data collection, validation and finalisation of the assessment framework.
The initiative marks an expansion of the Federal Government’s approach to measuring tertiary education performance, extending the assessment beyond universities to polytechnics and colleges of education.
The move also comes against the backdrop of Nigeria’s performance in the 2027 Times Higher Education World University Rankings, which showed an increase in the country’s representation.
According to Okebukola’s presentation, 29 Nigerian universities featured in the latest rankings, up from 24 in the previous edition, making Nigeria the most represented country in sub-Saharan Africa.
The University of Ibadan, University of Lagos and Covenant University were placed in the global 801–1,000 band, while four other Nigerian universities featured in the 1,001–1,200 category.
A further 32 Nigerian universities were listed in the Reporter category, bringing the number of Nigerian institutions that submitted data or otherwise engaged with the ranking process to 61.
The Reporter category comprises institutions that provided data but did not meet one or more requirements for inclusion in the ranked tables.
However, the presentation showed that only 29 of the 328 universities listed by the National Universities Commission appeared in the ranked category.
It identified research funding, publication productivity, institutional data management and international collaboration as areas requiring sustained attention.
The assessment also highlighted variations among institutions in teaching, research quality, industry engagement and international outlook.
Against this background, the national ranking is expected to give tertiary institutions a clearer domestic benchmark for assessing their performance, identifying weaknesses and planning improvements.
It is also expected to encourage competition among institutions while providing policymakers with information that could support efforts to strengthen Nigeria’s tertiary education system and improve its global competitiveness.
With the university, polytechnic and college of education rankings scheduled for completion by December 15, the exercise will now move through the stages of data gathering, verification and assessment before the final rankings are released.
