Africa-Press – South-Africa. STADIO has opened the doors to its new Durbanville campus in Cape Town, which is set to welcome its first cohort of students in early 2026.
The campus can accommodate between 4,000 and 5,000 contact-learning students. It will host 20 qualifications across seven fields, offering higher-certificate, undergraduate, and postgraduate degrees.
JSE-listed private education provider STADIO has allocated over R300 million to this new campus, which officially opened on 20 October 2025.
The Durbanville campus brings the company’s total campuses to seven, and is set to welcome its first cohort of students in February 2026.
The campus will feature 29 classrooms and laboratories, a multi-purpose hall accommodating over 1,000 students, and a ground-floor Centre for Academic Success with library, study rooms and support services.
A signature Master Lab for IT will offer an interactive, technology-rich environment centred around a sculptural tree – a gathering place for collaboration and innovation.
Two Engineering laboratories, equipped with 3D printing, mechatronics, and renewable-energy systems, will support the launch of Higher Certificates in Mechatronics and Renewable Energy in 2026. Further labs and degrees will follow in 2027.
Currently, the campus will host 20 qualifications across seven fields – Education, IT, Law, Media and Design, Commerce, Architecture and Engineering.
Other facilities at the campus include formal netball courts, multi-use artificial courts for five-a-side soccer, volleyball and basketball, and a partnership with Durbell Rugby Club for competitive rugby.
STADIO Higher Education CEO Stan du Plessis explained that instead of many small, fragmented sites, the company invests in a few strategic campuses that can deliver full academic ecosystems.
“The Durbanville campus demonstrates what it means to invest wisely – to create world-class infrastructure that will serve thousands of students for decades,” he said.
He pointed out that South Africa spends more on post-school education as a share of national income than many wealthier countries.
“Yet our graduate output and employability rates remain stubbornly poor. The challenge isn’t funding; it’s how efficiently and effectively we use the resources we already have,” he said.
However, he noted that efficiency is not synonymous with cost-cutting, but rather about freeing resources to expand access and maintain affordability.
“We deliberately don’t price for the elite end of the market,” he said. “To serve the nation, we must keep the access price competitive – and that requires smart systems behind the scenes.”
Du Plessis explained that STADIO’s investment in its Durbanville campus supports the company’s broader mission to “serve the nation” by widening access to tertiary education and aligning studies to employability.
“Our success won’t be measured only by enrolment or graduation numbers,” he said.
“We’ll hold ourselves accountable for the job-market success of our graduates – whether they find employment in the fields we’ve prepared them for. That’s the true test of relevance.”
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