At a Glance
- ADvTECH establishes ACE to improve teaching, research, and academic leadership across Africa.
- The new hub aligns ADvTECH’s private university ambitions with Africa’s evolving higher education standards.
- ACE integrates digital learning and quality assurance to enhance course design and student outcomes.
ADvTECH Group, Africa’s largest private education provider and owner of Crawford International, Rosebank College, and The IIE’s Varsity College, has launched the Academic Centre of Excellence (ACE), a new hub designed to enhance teaching standards, digital learning, and academic quality across Africa’s private university sector.
The move underscores ADvTECH’s goal to expand its higher education footprint and strengthen the credibility of private universities on the continent.
The centre, known as ACE, brings together the group’s academic and research functions under one roof. It will oversee curriculum design, quality assurance, and digital learning, and offer guidance on accreditation and academic policy.
Strengthening a growing education network
The Johannesburg-listed education group, ADvTECH, now educates more than 100,000 students across South Africa and other African markets, including Ghana. The group says ACE is a key step in a broader effort to modernize private higher education on the continent, where public universities face growing pressure to meet rising demand.
The new hub is expected to support ADvTECH’s plans to secure private university status for brands such as Emeris and Rosebank College. It will also align those goals with emerging higher education rules in South Africa and neighboring markets. “This isn’t a marketing project,” said Shevon Lurie, director of The Independent Institute of Education (The IIE). “It’s about deepening quality, supporting our lecturers and ensuring that what we teach connects with the real world.”
Blending technology and academic leadership
One of ACE’s main tasks is to make better use of digital tools in classrooms, without losing the human side of teaching.
“In higher education, technology helps only when it’s guided by structure and purpose,” said one senior academic involved in the project. “ACE helps us ensure that digital learning supports both teachers and students, rather than replacing them.”
The group has spent heavily in recent years on online platforms and data systems to track student performance. ACE brings those projects under a single framework, giving academic leaders more room to focus on course design and student outcomes.
Expansion beyond South Africa
ADvTECH continues to expand its footprint across the continent, especially in Ghana and Southern Africa. Its schools and colleges now serve students in areas ranging from healthcare and technology to engineering.
Africa’s young and fast-growing population, combined with a rising middle class, is fueling demand for quality education. But as private providers multiply, the focus is shifting from access to credibility and global competitiveness.
Building for the long term
For ADvTECH, ACE represents both ambition and accountability. The group faces the challenge of maintaining rigorous standards while navigating complex regulation and the need to keep tuition affordable.
“ACE gives us the foundation to do better,” Lurie said. “It’s about creating a smarter, more responsive academic environment — one that delivers impact, not prestige.”
Raising the bar for private universities
ADvTECH’s move highlights a turning point for Africa’s private education sector. Growth alone is no longer enough. The real measure now lies in the quality of teaching, relevance of programs and the credibility of qualifications.
If the centre delivers as planned, it could become a model for how African private universities are built, locally grounded, globally competitive and focused on results that matter to students and society.
