{"id":840022,"date":"2025-10-15T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=840022"},"modified":"2025-10-15T13:40:28","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T11:40:28","slug":"new-private-afrikaans-university-officially-launches-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/lifestyle\/840022\/new-private-afrikaans-university-officially-launches-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"New private Afrikaans university officially launches in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Private Afrikaans university Akademia has officially started enrolling full-time students at its new Paarl campus in the Western Cape, setting the stage for the 2026 academic year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The campus, located at 1 Bredastraat, Esterville, was officially introduced to the public and prospective students on Wednesday, 15 October 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Full-time students will begin their studies at the campus from 2026, with after-hours and distance studies also connecting there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to Marthinus Visser, Managing Director of Akademia, the launch of the campus represents a bond of trust between the group and the broader Afrikaans language and cultural communities of the Western Cape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;This campus does not belong only to Akademia; it belongs to everyone in the community who believes in the value of mother-tongue education,&#8221; Visser said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Akademia was established by the labour union Solidarity and has been providing lectures in Afrikaans to students since 2012.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When it was founded, the university only offered part-time distance learning with contact classes at a study centre in Centurion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This changed in 2021 when Akademia launched a small campus in Die Hoewes, Centurion, that offers full-time classes and includes accommodation for students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The private and independent tertiary education group has now added the Paarl campus to its physcial locations, with another R3 billion campus expected to open in Pretoria in 2028.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The campus facilities include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Lecture halls and various collaboration spaces;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>A fully equipped library;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>A <em>Sowel-As<\/em> coffee shop;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><em>Die Winkel<\/em> (for Akademia-branded merchandise); and<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Access control and secure parking.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Akademia said that the campus will open with a staff complement of 52 full-time employees, and it is already in the process of filling posts for 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When the academic year launches, it will have 25 academic staff members and 27 departmental staff employed on-site. It is projected that by 2028, nearly 88 full-time staff will be working on the campus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Approximately 340 first-year students are expected to be welcomed in 2026, with that number projected to surpass 2,000 by 2032.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In terms of courses, Akademia now offers BCom degrees in economics and law, business management, and financial management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It also offers a BEd in intermediary education, LLB, a BSc in mathematical sciences, a BA in communications and journalism, and a BSocSci in politics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Akademia added its first tech-focused degree, a BSc in Computer Science, in the 2023 academic year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For the new Paarl campus, the group will offer the following for the 2026 academic year:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Faculty of Economics and Management Sciences:<\/strong> BCom (Economics and Law), BCom (Financial and Management Accounting), BCom (Business Management)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Faculty of Humanities<\/strong>: BA (Communication and Journalism), BSocSci (Politics, Philosophy and Economics)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Faculty of Natural Sciences:<\/strong> BSc (Computer Sciences)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Faculty of Education:<\/strong> BEd (Foundation Phase Education), BEd (Intermediate Phase Education)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Faculty of Law:<\/strong> LLB<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>All courses are in Afrikaans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a  data-lightbox=\"post-image\" href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Akademia-Paarl-01.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Akademia-Paarl-01-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-840028\" srcset=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Akademia-Paarl-01-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Akademia-Paarl-01-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Akademia-Paarl-01-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Akademia-Paarl-01.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Private Afrikaans university Akademia has officially started enrolling full-time students at its new Paarl campus in the Western Cape, setting the stage for the 2026 academic year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":840029,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9876],"tags":[20340,7137],"class_list":["post-840022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle","tag-akademia","tag-university"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/840022","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=840022"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/840022\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":840032,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/840022\/revisions\/840032"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/840029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=840022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=840022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=840022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}