{"id":837981,"date":"2025-09-19T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-19T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=837981"},"modified":"2026-01-23T10:20:06","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T08:20:06","slug":"new-r420-million-private-university-launching-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/trending\/837981\/new-r420-million-private-university-launching-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"New R420 million private ‘university’ launching in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

JSE-listed education group ADvTECH has announced the launch of a new R420 million mega-campus in Sandton, bringing its Varsity College, Vega and MSA brands together under a single brand, Emeris.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group said that the new campus will open in 2026 with an initial capacity of 9,000 students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Facilities will include a double-storey library and information centre, a student experience hub with career and counselling services, a custom-designed indoor sports centre capable of hosting international events and innovation spaces including IT labs, podcast studios and interactive mock classrooms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ADvTECH said that Emeris brand will help it expand and meet evolving student needs in South Africa, while also pushing growth of its business operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis strategic alignment amplifies ADvTECH\u2019s commitment to delivering diverse, high-quality educational pathways, tailored to meet market demands,” said ADvTECH Group CEO Geoff Whyte. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“By consolidating these institutions under one brand, ADvTECH offers students an enhanced educational experience, fosters collaboration, and drives innovation.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group has been pushing hard with its tertiary education division, aiming to be the first official private university group in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As it currently stands, the title of ‘university’ is reserved for state-owned institutions under South African legislation. However, processes are underway to change this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A draft Policy for the Recognition of South African Higher Education Institutional Types was released in September 2022, setting out the criteria to be recognised as a university.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFollowing the submission of comments, a second draft was published in April 2024. We submitted our comments on the second draft in May 2024 and await the gazetting of the policy and criteria,” ADvTECH said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group said that recognition as a university will benefit its students, who will be afforded the same status as their peers who obtain identically accredited qualifications through a Public University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group has also seen marked revenue growth in its tertiary education division, where revenue increased by 13% to R1.2 billion, while operating profit increased by 14% to R496 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group said that the division continues to perform well and grow on the back of a well-established brand portfolio that offers a comprehensive range of programmes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In line with its strategy, the division is seeing strong enrolment growth in its distance offering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group added that its Rosebank College Cape Town mega campus has been relocated, whilst expansion projects for the Braamfontein and Polokwane campuses are underway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 47,000 sqm property off Grayston Drive in Sandton that will now serve as the site for the Emeris campus is just the latest feather in its cap. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking internationally, Rosebank International University College (RIUC) in Accra, Ghana, was inaugurated in August 2025, with student registrations having commenced in preparation for the academic year in January.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new RIUC campus builds on ADvTECH\u2019s existing international presence in Kenya, Botswana and Ethiopia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group\u2019s total student numbers at its tertiary division increased by 14% to 60,067 over the period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Images of the new mega-campus in Sandton<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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JSE-listed education group ADvTECH has announced the launch of a new R420 million mega-campus in Sandton in 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":837984,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-837981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trending"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/837981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=837981"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/837981\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":848657,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/837981\/revisions\/848657"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/837984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=837981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=837981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=837981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}