R3-billion private Afrikaans university campus plans revealed

Real estate development company Kanton revealed detailed plans of a new campus for Solidarity’s private Afrikaans university Akademia in Pretoria on Thursday.

The comprehensive R3-billion facility will be constructed along Boschkop Road in Pretoria East, roughly eight kilometres from Solomon Mahlangu Drive.

Akademia said the campus will support an extensive academic programme across all its faculties, with a capacity for 5,000 full-time undergraduate students and nearly 1,500 postgraduate students.

The campus will include office blocks, lecture halls, laboratories, an auditorium, dedicated research halls, a cafeteria, restaurants, coffee shops, a student centre, a library, and staff accommodation.

There will also be four men’s and four women’s residences with enough rooms for 1,500 students.

Kanton managing director Henk Schalekamp said that phase one of the project will cost approximately R1.8 billion and be completed on 1 January 2028.

It will encompass all the core academic and operational facilities.

“The second phase will see the completion of the academic campus and residences, followed by the sports facilities, a chapel and auditorium,” Schalekamp said.

This will include “world-class” sports facilities for rugby, cricket, netball, tennis, athletics, hockey, swimming, and indoor sports.

“There is also an experimental farm planned for the Faculties Natural Sciences and Agriculture,” Schalekamp added.

Kanton said the campus project is the largest development project in the history of the Afrikaans language and culture communities and represents a major historical turning point to ensure the sustainability of higher education in Afrikaans.

“We are going to build a giant monument for Afrikaans higher education,” Schalekamp said.

Akademia has teased the campus’s construction for several years.

Schalekamp revealed it took roughly three and half years to secure all the necessary approvals for the campus from relevant authorities.

Construction on the first phase is set to commence in January 2026.

Akademia managing director Marthinus Visser called the new campus the “realisation of a big dream”.

“This requires the strength of an aligned community that can achieve the seemingly impossible through unity and cooperation,” Visser said.

Akademia already has two smaller physical campuses and four residences in Centurion, but it regards these as interim infrastructure solutions.

The university said the new campus will provide an opportunity to consolidate its growth over the past decade and to give its future campus students a fixed address where they can experience an active and exciting student life.

On Thursday, Kanton also launched the “Toekomsbouer” (“future builder” in Afrikaans) campaign to call on the community to contribute to the development.

The Toekomsbouer website includes a portal where users can track the project’s progress.

Kanton previously constructed Solidarity’s Sol-Tech technical college campus in Centurion, which it delivered on time and within budget despite delays experienced due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Akademia’s growth and offering

Founded in 2011, Akademia has grown its offering from three qualifications to 12 degrees and a range of diplomas and higher certificates, with Afrikaans as the medium of instruction.

The institution was established in response to many public universities ending Afrikaans-based learning and switching to English-only in a bid to become more inclusive for the general population.

Between 2012 and 2022, Akademia grew its student intake from forty to 2,350 and its staff from five to nearly 200.

For part-time distance learning, it offers five study centres in addition to its current campuses.

It also plans to launch another small campus in the Western Cape by 2026.

The table below summarises all the degrees, diplomas, and certificates offered by Akademia. Underneath the table are photos showing the architectural model of the new campus.