The Independent Institute of Education (The IIE)

The Independent Institute of Education (The IIE) is South Africa’s largest registered private higher education institution and a wholly owned subsidiary of the JSE-listed ADvTECH Group, Africa’s leading private education provider. Founded in 2004 as the academic leadership and governance body within ADvTECH, the IIE is responsible for developing, delivering, assessing and quality-assuring the curricula taught across the group’s tertiary campuses. It operates across roughly two dozen sites nationally and offers more than 130 registered and accredited programmes spanning Higher Certificate to Doctoral level.

The IIE confers its qualifications through a number of well-known educational brands. In 2026 several of these – Varsity College, Vega, IIE MSA and the School of Hospitality and Service Management – were unified under the new banner Emeris, while IIE Rosebank College (which has announced its own transition towards Rosebank International) continues as a major affordable-education brand. Because the IIE places the “IIE” acronym in front of each brand name, students can readily distinguish these accredited institutions from similarly named providers elsewhere.

The IIE is registered with the Department of Higher Education and Training as a private higher education provider under the Higher Education Act, with qualifications accredited by the Higher Education Quality Committee of the Council on Higher Education and registered on the National Qualifications Framework by SAQA. It was the first South African higher education provider to be accredited by the British Accreditation Council, reflecting internationally benchmarked standards. Its head office is in Sandton, Johannesburg. Full programme, fee and admissions details are available directly from the institution and its campuses.