Abuja, Nigeria – The Nigerian Universities Ranking Advisory Committee (NURAC) has announced plans to conduct a nationwide ranking of Nigerian universities by October 2026, aiming to assess and improve the quality of higher education in the country.
The announcement was made by Emeritus Prof. Peter Okebukola, former Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC), during an interview in Abuja on Wednesday, 19 November 2025. Prof. Okebukola, who also served as Chairman of the Governing Council of the National Open University of Nigeria, confirmed that the next ranking would follow the last NURAC assessment conducted in 2024, which showed a strong correlation with global university league tables in 2025.
The move comes in the wake of the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings 2026, which assessed 2,191 institutions from 115 countries using 18 performance indicators across five key areas: teaching, research environment, research quality, industry engagement, and international outlook. In the global ranking, the University of Ibadan (UI) emerged as Nigeria’s best university, moving up from fourth place in 2025 and overtaking Covenant University, which had held the top spot in 2024 and 2025. UI was ranked between 801 and 1,000 globally.
Following UI in Nigeria’s rankings are:
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University of Lagos (UNILAG) – 2nd
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Bayero University, Kano (BUK) – 3rd
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Covenant University (CU) – 4th
Prof. Okebukola noted that NURAC’s upcoming ranking would provide a comprehensive assessment of Nigerian universities, building on the success of previous national and international evaluations. He confirmed that there are currently no bottlenecks hindering the ranking process.
In preparation, NURAC met on 16 October 2025 to review Nigeria’s performance in the 2026 THE rankings and discuss strategies to improve outcomes in the 2027 edition. Prof. Okebukola stated, “We agreed to forward an Aide Mémoire to the NUC and the Honourable Minister of Education outlining steps to not only improve global rankings but also elevate the quality of the university delivery system beyond rankings alone.”
Historically, the NUC last conducted a national ranking in 2021, evaluating 113 universities across the country using 12 performance indicators. That assessment placed UI first with 454.56 points, followed by Redeemer’s University (384.96 points) and Covenant University (368.11 points).
The upcoming 2026 NURAC ranking is expected to provide further insights into the strengths and opportunities for growth within Nigeria’s higher education sector.
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