Business

The company educating more South Africans than UCT, Wits, and Stellenbosch

Malcolm Libera

 ·28 Aug 2026

Private education group STADIO now has more students than the individual student populations of the University of Cape Town (UCT), the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) and Stellenbosch University.

The group, which operates higher education institutions across South Africa, reported that semester-one enrolments increased by 10% year-on-year to 56,171 students in the six months to 30 June 2026, from 51,197 a year earlier.

By August, total enrolments had increased further to 59,191 students, up from 54,487 in August 2025, although semester-two registrations were still underway.

STADIO said the milestone was the result of continued investment in its people, systems, infrastructure and brand as it works towards its longer-term ambition of obtaining university status.

“The Group increased semester one student enrolments year-on-year by 10% to 56,171 from 51,197,” it said in its interim results for the six months ended 30 June 2026.

Distance learning accounted for the vast majority of STADIO’s students. The group had 48,089 distance-learning students at the end of June, representing 86% of its total enrolment and a 9% increase from 44,179 at the end of June 2025.

However, STADIO said the reported growth in distance learning was affected by the legacy business-to-business Milpark operation. Excluding this business, distance-learning student numbers increased by 14%.

Contact-learning enrolments grew even faster, rising 15% to 8,082 students from 7,018. The company attributed the increase partly to additional campus capacity.

STADIO’s overall enrolment is now larger than the student populations of several of South Africa’s biggest traditional universities when considered individually.

Wits has around 42,000 students, while Stellenbosch University has roughly 32,500 and UCT has around 30,000.

This means STADIO’s 59,191 students exceed the total student population of each of these universities.

“Having reached its pre-listing target of 56,000 students during the period—a significant milestone in the Group’s growth journey—STADIO is now deliberately shifting gears,” the company said.

It added that its 2030 strategy would focus on targeted growth initiatives, including investment in academic programmes, technology and campus infrastructure.

Double-digit growth

The strategy is also linked to STADIO’s ambition to attain university status.

The company said these investments are intended to increase capacity and support growth while maintaining academic quality and the student experience.

The growth came alongside stronger financial results. Revenue increased 13% to R1.08 billion from R957 million, while normalised EBITDA rose 16% to R339 million. 

Its EBITDA margin improved to 31.3%, despite upfront operating costs associated with new campuses.

Core headline earnings per share increased 18% to 24.5 cents, compared with 20.7 cents a year earlier.

STADIO also continued investing in its physical footprint. It spent R79 million on Phase 2 of its Durbanville campus, which opened with more than 1,250 students.

A further R18 million was spent acquiring building capacity at its Waterfall campus.

The group generated R418 million in cash from operations during the period, up 13% year-on-year. It ended June with R150 million in cash and shareholders’ equity of R2.08 billion.

STADIO also drew R120 million from its R325 million revolving credit facility with RMB, while reporting that it remained comfortably within its loan covenants.

The company paid an annual dividend of 18.4 cents per share in April 2026, amounting to R156.1 million, while also repurchasing 3 million shares for R36.3 million during the first half of the year to offset dilution from its employee incentive scheme.