South African private ‘university’ giant wants more students than UCT and Tuks combined

STADIO is on a roll, with the private education giant eyeing 80,000 students by 2030, and even more in the years after, with the group expected to hit 56,000 this year.

This target appears likely, with STADIO having seen tremendous growth in student numbers since listing on the JSE, having gone from less than 13,000 in 2017 to over 50,000 today.

Notably, this strong growth in student numbers is across both contact and distance learning, though contact learning growth far outpaces distance learning.

At its latest Annual General Meeting (AGM), held on Thursday, 18 June, STADIO provided an overview of its operations and revealed big plans for the group’s future.

Since unbundling from Curro and listing separately on the JSE in 2017, STADIO has continued to go from strength to strength.

The group has achieved significant scale through various methods, including acquisitions, organic growth, and infrastructure development.

When it was first listed, STADIO focused heavily on growth by acquisition, adding seven higher education brands to its stable in 2017 and 2018 alone. 

This included AFDA, CA Connect, Embury, LISOF, Milpark Education, Prestige Academy, and Southern Business School.

Naturally, these acquisitions significantly boosted STADIO’s offerings and student numbers, with the group jumping from 12,976 students in 2017 to 31,869 in 2019.

Following this acquisition spree, STADIO focused on optimising its business structure in 2020, consolidating four of its separate brands into a single, comprehensive private education institution – STADIO Higher Education.

With the business more streamlined, STADIO turned its attention to organic growth and infrastructure investment, which included the construction of two mega-campuses over the past four years.

Today, STADIO offers over 100 accredited qualifications across three distinct private higher education institutions and 16 campuses and distance learning support offices.

STADIO’s year of investment

All of these growth strategies have served STADIO well, with the group growing from R122 million in revenue in 2017 to R1.81 billion in 2025.

The group’s EBITDA has risen from R500,000 in 2017 to R553 million in 2025, while its return on equity has shot up from 4% in 2018 to 15.7% in 2025.

Now, the group has set its sights firmly on the future, with STADIO CEO Dr Stan du Plessis describing 2026 as “STADIO’s Year of Investment”.

He explained that STADIO has picked 2026 to be its deliberate year of investment, with the private education giant set to invest heavily in infrastructure, technology, the brand, and academic capacity.

Firstly, the group plans to open two new campuses – its Durbanville Campus in Cape Town and Waterfall Campus in Midrand.

The group also wants to launch 18 new qualifications or sites of delivery, including Engineering for the first time, while continuing to invest in technology, AI, the brand, and its academic capacity. 

In a notice to shareholders ahead of the AGM, STADIO said it remains confident in its long-term ambitions, including reaching 80,000 students by 2030, “and 100,000 students, and more, over time”.

For reference, the University of Cape Town (UCT) has an annual enrollment of around 30,000 students, while the University of Pretoria (UP) enrols about 56,000 students annually.

Therefore, if STADIO achieves its 80,000-student target, it would have nearly as many students as UCT and UP combined, and more if it eventually reaches the 100,000 mark.

At the AGM, STADIO also updated shareholders on its performance in the 2026 financial year to date, with promising signs of bumper results to come.

The group’s student numbers have already grown to 55,854 by June 2026, up 9% in the year to date.

This growth was largely driven by a 15% increase in contact learning students, with STADIO’s Durbanville campus already boasting 1,300 students, despite construction still being underway.

The growth in contact learning students far outpaced that of distance learners, though this also showed strong growth of 8% in the year to date.

However, distance learners make up the lion’s share of STADIO’s student base, at 85% compared to contact learning’s 15%.

This puts STADIO well on track to reach its pre-listing statement promise of 56,000 students in 2026.