Lisof will retain its own brand, campuses, management and staff, but will share a common ethos and benefit from the synergies, infrastructure and shared services available in the Stadio Group. As a result, staff can expect greater career development opportunities, and students increased academic diversity.
Stadio started as a subsidiary of Curro, the largest for-profit independent school group in Africa, but was separately listed on the JSE on 3 October 2017. It has a market value of almost R3 billion.
In pursuit of its goal to become a leader in the higher education market in South Africa, Stadio intends to create a multiversity. This is defined as a large, diverse institution of higher learning created to educate for life and for a profession, and to grant degrees, higher certificates and diplomas. Whereas a university implies sameness and the integration of all knowledge, a multiversity implies a diversity of knowledge with diverse institutions catering for the diverse and relevant needs of the South African market place. The concept of a multiversity further respects the uniqueness of every student.
As a multiversity, Stadio aims to own various registered higher education institutions. It has already acquired the South African School of Motion Picture Medium and Live Performance (Afda), Embury Institute for Higher Education, and the Southern Business School. In addition to Lisof, Stadio is currently in the process of acquiring Milpark, a higher education institution focussing on commerce and business related programmes.
According to Shana Rosenthal, CEO and founder of Lisof, being in the multiversity environment opens up great opportunities. “Being in the same arena as Afda gives us the opportunity to work alongside one another and complement each other as brands, and in our quest for the advancement of education and the arts. An arts campus is something that I have always aspired to and dreamed of, and the possibility of this being realised as part of the Stadio Group is very exciting.”
Lisof’s alumni occupy key fashion and retail positions across the world, based on the expert combination of theory and practice their Lisof degrees equipped them with. These qualifications cover a diversity of disciplines, from design to marketing, styling to buying, merchandising to photography, and many more.
Lisof is a private higher education institution fully accredited by the South African Council of Higher Education and, by being the first institution to launch BA and BCom degrees in fashion in the South Africa, a pioneer in fashion education.
