Key Points

• Nigeria sets October 2026 for its next national university ranking.

• New national university ranking aims to align more closely with global standards.

• NURAC says preparations are underway with no current bottlenecks.

The government of Nigeria is getting ready for the next nationwide university ranking, which will take place in October 2026. The program is a new attempt to bring more openness, competition, and global standards to the country’s higher education system. This sector has been affected by inconsistent funding and uneven performance by institutions for a long time.

The Nigerian Universities Ranking Advisory Committee, or NURAC, confirmed the plan during an interview in Abuja on Wednesday.

Emeritus Professor Peter Okebukola, the committee’s chair, said that it has already started making timelines, evaluation models, and a plan for the exercise. This move comes after Nigeria’s mixed performance in the 2026 Times Higher Education World University Rankings, where the University of Ibadan regained its status as the country’s best school.

Plans for a national university ranking move forward

Okebukola said that the last national university ranking, which took place in 2024, was very helpful. The results were very similar to the global rankings for 2025, which made NURAC even more sure of its method.

He said that the validation helped him decide that 2026 would be the next nationwide review. He said that the committee is not currently facing any “bottlenecks,” which means that planning is moving forward without any major problems at the institutional level.

This renewed focus comes at a time when global ratings systems are becoming more and more competitive. Times Higher Education looked at 2,191 schools in 115 countries for the 2026 edition. They used 18 performance indicators to look at things like the quality of teaching, the research environment, the amount of research done, collaboration with businesses, and internationalisation.

The University of Ibadan moved up from fourth place in Nigeria in 2025 to take the top spot in 2026, beating out the University of Lagos, Bayero University, and Covenant University. It is ranked between 801 and 1,000 in the world.

NURAC’s renewed push also shows that people are worried about Nigeria’s place in the world of academics.

The committee met on October 16, 2025, to look at how the country was doing and come up with plans to make it more competitive in the 2027 global rankings. That meeting made an aide-memoire for the National Universities Commission and the Minister of Education. It stressed the need for governance reforms, better research systems, and quality-assurance improvements that go beyond the “league-table mindset.”

Before the national university ranking, universities get ready

Nigeria last did a nationwide ranking in 2021, looking at 113 universities on 12 different measures. The University of Ibadan was first on that list, followed by Redeemer’s University and Covenant University.

The upcoming 2026 national university ranking is expected to use a wider range of indicators that are in line with global standards but also take into account Nigeria’s unique circumstances, such as differences in funding, staffing issues, and gaps in infrastructure.
The goal is that a regular, trustworthy ranking cycle will make schools compete harder, improve student performance, and, in the end, make Nigeria more visible on global education charts.