For about three years consecutively, Covenant University, Ota has continued to maintain its rating by Times Higher Education beating old universities in Nigeria and itching to have a place among top universities across the globe.
In the 2025 Times Higher Education rating, CU ranked best in Nigeria and was ranked one of the first 1000 universities globally. The rating put Covenant University as No. 1 in Nigeria and No. 1 in West Africa. It moved up to No. 6 in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Covenant University was placed in the 801-1000 bracket among nearly 2092 participating institutions from 115 countries and regions worldwide.
The ranking criteria included various parameters such as teaching quality, research environment, research quality, industry engagement, and international outlook. The university excelled in these areas compared to other universities in the country.
But what many who read the story of CU’s excellent rating don’t know is how the university came about this rating in the short time of its existence.
Digital presence
A top principal officer in the university who prefers anonymity told Church Times that what sets Covenant University apart from others is its heavy investment in technology thus making the university have more digital presence than any other university in the country.
He said, “What CU has done is not something special as it were. It is just that it has successfully been able to deploy technology effectively to project its activities. The university has spent millions of naira on technology. That is what is paying off for the university now.”
The source said three things make the university exceptional. One of them is the admission process of the university, the second is the curriculum of the university and the third is its process of staff recruitment.
These three areas according to the source are fully automated. There is no human interference in the process after the technology powering them has been set in motion.
Automation
He explains, “that because the process is automated, it makes it easy for the rating organisation to access the operations of the university. Many other universities also have good admission processes, but these processes are not automated. The rating organisation can’t see how they admit their students. The more online presence you have the more chances of being well rated.”
Because the CU admission process is fully automated, some students according to the Church Times source lost their admission recently.
“The way it works is that from the time a candidate writes the qualifying test to the time fees are paid and the candidate resumes to start lectures no human being is involved in determining the outcome. The only thing done by man is to programme the criteria for the system and set boundaries.
“You won’t be dealing with human beings that can manipulate the process. If for instance, a student applies to study Mathematics, he sits for the computer-based exams. Already the cut-off for the course is fed to the computer. If the student meets the criteria, he is offered admission automatically. His letter of admission is generated automatically and sent to his mail. The candidate is asked to pay the acceptance fee through an automated process. If he does not pay the acceptance fee at a given period, he loses the admission automatically.
“No human factor is involved. But the good thing is that the automation is such that the student who is not given admission in his first choice could be offered another course through an automated process. That is if the candidate meets the criteria of the suggested course.”
Admission process
The source hinted that some students who did not meet the deadline for payment after they had been admitted lost their admission because they did not pay the school fees at the stipulated time even when they had been offered admission. “Today, CU is oversubscribed. Students offered admission who don’t pay immediately are logged out of the system and their place is replaced with the next in the admission list.
“If the university is to admit 50, the computer pegs the admission at that number. But when one of the 50 fails to pay at the stipulated time, the person’s name is logged out and another in line is offered admission immediately.”
The source said the rating organisation can see these processes because they are online.
He said, “In CU, the daily academic activities of the university are also online. It is available for the rating body. They rely on online information about the activities of the universities. The lecture notes and academic papers of lecturers at the CU are published on sites where lecturers from big universities in the world publish their articles. This makes it easy for the rating body to assess the university.”
The officer said many Nigerian universities, especially government-owned universities, are not investing in technology the way CU does. “Even if they are doing things that are worth being celebrated globally and acknowledged, nobody sees them. because the world now lives on the internet.”
He said the rating body will not go out of its way to look for outstanding universities. They rely on information gathered online before anything else.
Employment
“In the employment of staff in the university, the process is also automated. You can’t influence a job for anybody. The best you can do is to recommend the person and the person is invited for an interview. After that, nobody has any control again. If you are good, you will get the job, if you are not, you will be thrown out.” The source said.
He explained further that the content of its curriculum is employment-friendly. “Our products are employable because the kind of teachings we give them are industry-based and not just theories. That is why our products are well sought after.”
The source said many Nigerian universities have the potential to rate high in the Times Education rating but because they don’t have digital footprints, it is difficult for the rating organisation to see what they do and how they run their universities. “I can tell you authoritatively that all that goes on in CU has an online presence,” he said.