AKADEMIA
Committed to a free future for the Afrikaans language and Afrikaans cultural communities.
The Kenyan thought leader, Ali Mazrui, said that a society without the will to create a sustainable university is a society without the will to maintain sustainable development and progress. The Afrikaans community has always risen from the ashes by means of training, and therefore, the Akademia project is merely a continuation of the trust our community puts in development through education.
AKADEMIA
Committed to a free future for the Afrikaans language and Afrikaans cultural communities.
The Kenyan thought leader, Ali Mazrui, said that a society without the will to create a sustainable university is a society without the will to maintain sustainable development and progress. The Afrikaans community has always risen from the ashes by means of training, and therefore, the Akademia project is merely a continuation of the trust our community puts in development through education.
- A Decade of Growth and Expansion
Since Akademia presented its first lectures in 2012, this institution has gone from strength to strength. Today, more than a decade later, this institution is enjoying an exceptional time of prosperity, which includes the inauguration of a full-time campus in Centurion, the introduction of two student residences, and the news about its geographic expansion into the Western Cape. The latter dream is taking shape fast, and it is envisaged that this satellite campus, which is likely to be located in the Paarl area, would be up and running by as early as 2026.
Other plans for the future include the establishment of a modern and all-inclusive residential campus in the east of Pretoria. It is envisaged that this development would be completed by 2028 and comes with a comprehensive offer that will provide for 5 000 undergraduate and 2 000 postgraduate students who will be able to study in Pretoria. In addition, provision will be made for approximately 1 500 residential students.
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Architecturally, the design of the new campus will establish a visual connection with Akademia’s classical nature in a contemporary context. The estimated development costs of this campus are R3 billion, and a capital fundraising campaign will soon be launched. History has taught us that the seemingly impossible can become possible through the power of a cooperating community, and for this reason this campaign, as well as the eventual campus will bear the seal of community commitment.
Whereas Akademia initially started with only four programmes offered by one faculty and with a handful of brave and passionate staff, this institution today boasts a variety of programmes offered by five dynamic faculties. These faculties are Economic and Management Sciences, Social Sciences and Humanities, Natural Sciences, Education, and Law. In addition, students have a choice between two educational instruction models: a full-time campus model offered at the Centurion campus, or the after-hours distance learning model that can be followed via a countrywide network of centres, or an e-learning option. The latter is ideal for students who are already in the workplace or are pursuing other interests.
At the start of the 2024 academic year, more than 230 full-time and part-time staff are being employed at the institution, while more than 3 200 “Fonties” (Akademia students) from across both instruction models have chosen Akademia to be the home for their studies. The growing staff and student structures form the foundation from which the institution realises its vision, namely, to be an academic home where the mind and the heart are shaped with a view to a free future.
On the face of it, the institution may be regarded as relatively young, but its roots go back to as far as Plato and the Platonic Academy that was founded in 387 BC in ancient Athens. Akademia is guided by its motto, Ad futurum per fontes (loosely translated as “From the sources to the future”), and it is thus committed to the classical university tradition. This means that this institution’s role is more than being yet another education institution. In essence, the classical university tradition comes into its own when, firstly it stands in awe of reality as a whole, and secondly, it leads to critical, open discussion.
This classical foundation takes practical shape through initiatives that develop mould students in that:
- In its teaching of the various disciplines, Akademia not only imparts the best possible knowledge in the respective fields (Economics, Education, Law, Computer Sciences etc.) but it also offers insight into the coherence between the various fields of knowledge;
- Akademia’s module on the Art of Scholarship broadens and deepens students’ frame of reference by exposing them to the Great Books;
- The NP van Wyk Louw Centre was established to serve as a forum for an exchange of thoughts that facilitates discussion on the theoretical and practical dimensions that exist between the academic and the wider community at a local and international level;
- Akademia liaises with leading international universities in the classical tradition of university education to gain insight into best practices in order to further develop Akademia’s ideal of moulding its students; and
- The idea of truth, goodness and beauty can find expression in a vibrant student life. Student life does not stand in isolation but forms an integral part of the holistic development of the student (the mind and the heart).
One of Akademia’s values is “commitment”.
With this in mind, an innovative centre strategy has been launched to further expand Akademia’s commitment to the community. In addition to this, even more faculties and programmes are being envisaged, and steps have already been taken to turn this expansion into a reality. Several new academic programmes have been submitted to the Council on Higher Education for accreditation.
- A Beacon of Hope in South African Higher Education
Thanks to visionary leadership and an aim directed to the future, Akademia could rise as a beacon of hope amid the turbulent nature of the South African higher education landscape. Through the institution’s heartbeat of commitment formed by its values of faith, hope and love, stewardship, pioneership and its appreciation for truth, goodness and beauty, Akademia’s raison d’être will also be true for future generations: Akademia is a Christian, classical and independent higher education institution from and for the Afrikaans language and cultural communities.