{"id":872505,"date":"2026-08-28T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-28T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=872505"},"modified":"2026-08-28T09:54:37","modified_gmt":"2026-08-28T07:54:37","slug":"the-company-educating-more-south-africans-than-uct-wits-and-stellenbosch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/872505\/the-company-educating-more-south-africans-than-uct-wits-and-stellenbosch\/","title":{"rendered":"The company educating more South Africans than UCT, Wits, and Stellenbosch"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Group increased semester one student enrolments year-on-year by 10% to 56,171 from 51,197,\u201d it said in its interim results for the six months ended 30 June 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Distance learning accounted for the vast majority of STADIO\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

STADIO\u2019s overall enrolment is now larger than the student populations of several of South Africa\u2019s biggest traditional universities when considered individually.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wits has around 42,000 students, while Stellenbosch University has roughly 32,500 and UCT has around 30,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This means STADIO\u2019s 59,191 students exceed the total student population of each of these universities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHaving reached its pre-listing target of 56,000 students during the period\u2014a significant milestone in the Group\u2019s growth journey\u2014STADIO is now deliberately shifting gears,\u201d the company said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It added that its 2030 strategy would focus on targeted growth initiatives, including investment in academic programmes, technology and campus infrastructure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Double-digit growth <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The strategy is also linked to STADIO\u2019s ambition to attain university status. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company said these investments are intended to increase capacity and support growth while maintaining academic quality and the student experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Its EBITDA margin improved to 31.3%, despite upfront operating costs associated with new campuses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Core headline earnings per share increased 18% to 24.5 cents, compared with 20.7 cents a year earlier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A further R18 million was spent acquiring building capacity at its Waterfall campus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019 equity of R2.08 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/th>Six Months Ended 30 June 2026<\/th>Six Months Ended 30 June 2025<\/th>Year-on-Year % growth<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
Revenue<\/strong><\/td>R1 080.3 million<\/strong><\/td>R956.8 million<\/td>+13%<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
Normalised EBITDA<\/strong><\/td>R338.7 million<\/strong><\/strong><\/td>R292.8 million<\/td>+16%<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
EBITDA Margin<\/strong><\/td>31.3%<\/strong><\/td>30.6%<\/td>+70 bps<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
Profit After Taxation<\/strong><\/td>R209.2 million<\/strong><\/strong><\/td>R182.9 million<\/td>+14%<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
Headline Earnings<\/strong><\/td>R203.0 million<\/strong><\/strong><\/td>R176.1 million<\/td>+15%<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
Core Headline Earnings<\/strong><\/td>R207.4 million<\/strong><\/strong><\/td>R176.1 million<\/td>+18%<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
Headline EPS (HEPS)<\/strong><\/td>24.0 cps<\/strong><\/td>20.7 cps<\/td>+16%<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
Core HEPS<\/strong><\/td>24.5 cps<\/strong><\/td>20.7 cps<\/td>+18%<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
Cash Generated from Operations<\/strong><\/td>R417.7 million<\/strong><\/strong><\/td>R368.2 million<\/td>+13%<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
Net Asset Value (NAV) per share<\/strong><\/td>246 cps<\/strong><\/td>234 cps<\/td>+5%<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A South African private education giantnow has more students than the University of Cape Town (UCT), the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) and Stellenbosch University.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":872518,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"failed","_sma_x_autopost_error":"Instagram publishing failed: Instagram returned HTTP 400: Media ID is not available","_sma_x_post_id":"2093247475914006642","_sma_facebook_post_id":"191437357620492_2188941261926273","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[853,12509],"class_list":["post-872505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-south-africa","tag-stadio"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872505","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\/92"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=872505"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872505\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":872526,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872505\/revisions\/872526"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/872518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=872505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=872505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=872505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}