JSE-listed ADvTECH, Africa’s leading private education provider, has officially launched its Academic Centre of Excellence (ACE) – a first-of-its-kind initiative designed to enhance academic leadership, innovation, and quality assurance across the group’s schools and tertiary institutions.
The Academic Centre of Excellence represents a transformative milestone for ADvTECH. Conceived as a centralised, future-focused hub, ACE brings together key aspects of the academic value chain into an integrated ecosystem that fuses academic governance, teaching innovation, digital transformation, and institutional research advancement. It is the foundation upon which ADvTECH is building a new era of educational thought and practice – one that is distinctly African in its context but globally benchmarked in its standards.
“We take great pride in the launch of our Academic Centre of Excellence (ACE), established as a central hub for academic innovation within the group,” says Shevon Lurie, Director of The IIE, ADvTECH’s Tertiary Division.
“ACE is designed to maximise ADvTECH’s academic advantage across the group, with the ultimate goal for ACE to emerge as an internationally recognised leader in academic thought and practice.”
Through ACE, ADvTECH will amplify its academic edge by leveraging the rich expertise and capabilities across its extensive network of schools and tertiary institutions. The centre will provide a unified structure for academic governance, accreditation, and quality assurance, while delivering seamless EdTech integration, advanced data analytics, academic development initiatives, and institutional research. The outcome is a stronger, smarter, and more agile academic ecosystem that benefits around 100 000 students and 9 000 academic staff across South Africa and the rest of the continent.
At its heart, ACE embodies ADvTECH’s belief that excellence in education is not achieved through isolated innovation, but through deliberate collaboration, evidence-based practice, and a relentless pursuit of quality. It is an environment where governance meets creativity, where data informs strategy, and where technology and pedagogy intersect to transform teaching and learning.
This forward-thinking approach also underpins ADvTECH’s long-term ambitions for its schools and higher education divisions. ACE will play a critical role in advancing the strategic journey of Emeris and Rosebank College toward private university status, cementing ADvTECH’s leadership in shaping the future of African tertiary education.
“The ACE leadership team brings deep expertise and a shared commitment to redefining educational excellence in collaboration with ADvTECH’s school and tertiary brands,” Lurie adds. “Under their guidance, we are poised to set new benchmarks in academic innovation and impact in South Africa and internationally.”
More than a centre – ACE is a movement. It signifies a bold step toward a reimagined higher education landscape that is agile, quality-driven, and globally competitive. In an era where education is rapidly evolving, ADvTECH’s Academic Centre of Excellence positions the group not just as a participant in that change, but as the driver of it.
