The Federal Government has set December 15, 2026, as the deadline for completing a new national ranking exercise covering universities, polytechnics and colleges of education across Nigeria.
The exercise is being coordinated by the Nigerian Tertiary Education Ranking Advisory Committee (NiTERAC) under the Federal Ministry of Education. It is designed to create a common system for measuring the performance of tertiary institutions across the country.
Chairman of NiTERAC, Professor Peter Okebukola, disclosed the development in a presentation on Nigeria’s performance in the 2027 Times Higher Education World University Rankings.
According to him, the national ranking followed a directive from the Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, and will cover the three major areas of tertiary education: universities, polytechnics and colleges of education.
Okebukola said universities would be assessed using 22 indicators, with the weightings agreed with the League of Directors of Academic Planning.
The indicators are expected to help assess different areas of institutional performance. The process will involve collecting data from institutions, checking the information provided and completing the assessment framework before the final rankings are released.
The government said the ranking is intended to provide Nigerian tertiary institutions with a domestic benchmark for measuring their performance and identifying areas that need improvement. It is also expected to encourage healthy competition among institutions and support efforts to improve Nigeria’s position in international university rankings.
The new exercise represents an expansion of the government’s approach to tertiary education ranking. Previous attention has largely focused on universities, but the new framework will also cover polytechnics and colleges of education.
This means institutions in the three categories will have a common national system through which their performance can be assessed.
The development comes as Nigeria records increased representation in the latest Times Higher Education World University Rankings.
According to Okebukola’s presentation, 29 Nigerian universities were included in the 2027 global ranking, compared with 24 in the previous edition. Nigeria was also reported as the most represented country in sub-Saharan Africa in the ranking.
The University of Ibadan, University of Lagos and Covenant University were placed in the global 801–1,000 band. Four other Nigerian universities were placed in the 1,001–1,200 category.
Another 32 Nigerian universities were listed in the Reporter category. This brought the number of Nigerian universities that either submitted data or participated in the ranking process to 61.
The Reporter category includes institutions that provided information but did not meet one or more requirements needed to appear in the main ranked tables.
The presentation also identified areas such as research funding, publication output, institutional data management and international collaboration as areas that require continued attention within Nigeria’s tertiary education system.
The national ranking is therefore expected to give institutions a clearer picture of their performance and areas where they may need to improve.
The exercise is also expected to help the Federal Government understand differences among institutions in areas such as teaching, research, industry engagement and international outlook.
Earlier in September, the Federal Government had expanded its tertiary education ranking framework to include universities, polytechnics and colleges of education, with participation made compulsory for tertiary institutions.
With the December 15 deadline approaching, NiTERAC will have to complete the data collection, validation and assessment stages before publishing the national rankings.
The ranking will provide a new way of comparing the performance of Nigeria’s tertiary institutions within the country while also supporting efforts to improve their visibility and competitiveness internationally.
