South Africa’s private Afrikaans university showing incredible growth

Private Afrikaans university Akademia has shown strong growth over the last twelve years, with plans to grow its presence in South Africa.

Akademia was established by the labour union Solidarity and has been providing lectures in Afrikaans to students since 2012.

When it was founded, the university only offered part-time distance learning with contact classes at a study centre in Centurion.

This changed in 2021 when Akademia launched a small campus in Die Hoewes, Centurion, that offers full-time classes and includes accommodation for students.

Since then, it has shown exceptional growth with a significant increase in students and degrees it offers.

Akademia now offers BCom degrees in economics and law, business management, and financial management.

It also offers a BEd in intermediary education, LLB, a BSc in mathematical sciences, a BA in communications and journalism, and a BSocSci politics degree.

Akademia added its first tech-focused degree, a BSc in Computer Science degree, in the 2023 academic year.

To accommodate its rapid growth, the university is developing a new campus in partnership with real estate development company Kanton.

The comprehensive R3-billion facility is based along Boschkop Road in Pretoria East, roughly eight kilometres from Solomon Mahlangu Drive.

The campus will support an extensive academic programme across all its faculties, with a capacity for 5,000 full-time undergraduate students and 1,500 postgraduate students.

The campus will include office blocks, lecture halls, laboratories, an auditorium, and dedicated research halls.

It will also feature a cafeteria, restaurants, coffee shops, a student centre, a library, and staff accommodation.

There will be four men’s and four women’s residences, with enough rooms to accomodate 1,500 students.

Kanton managing director Henk Schalekamp said that phase one of the project will cost approximately R1.8 billion and be completed on 1 January 2028.

“The second phase will see the completion of the academic campus and residences, followed by the sports facilities, a chapel and auditorium,” Schalekamp said.

This will include world-class sports facilities for rugby, cricket, netball, tennis, athletics, hockey, swimming, and indoor sports.

“There is also an experimental farm planned for the faculties of natural sciences and agriculture,” Schalekamp added.

Akademia is also launching a campus for full-time students in the Western Cape, which will be ready by 2026. This will add to its two full-time campuses in Centurion.

The plan is to establish the campus in the triangle formed by the northern suburbs, Stellenbosch, and Paarl.

The university already offers three study centres for part-time students in George, Paarl, and Somerset West.

Akademia decided to establish a full-time campus in the Western Cape because the province has the highest concentration of Afrikaans speakers in the country.

The new campus will offer students courses in economics and management sciences, humanities, law, natural sciences, and teacher education.

The university is also expanding its after-hours distance model, aiming to double the student numbers by 2025.

Schalekamp said they are building a giant monument for Afrikaans higher education through its new campuses.

Akademia managing director Marthinus Visser called the new campus the “realisation of a big dream”.

“This requires the strength of an aligned community that can achieve the seemingly impossible through unity and cooperation,” Visser said.

New campus plan