STADIO Higher Education has formally consolidated its School of Fashion, School of Media and Design, and School of Arts and Humanities into a single, integrated faculty: the School of Fashion, Art and Design (SOFAD).
The move aligns the education provider’s formal structure with a shared academic model that has been in place since 2025. It also reflects the increasingly interdisciplinary nature of creative and humanities education.
Maryne Steenekamp, head of SOFAD, explains that the new faculty brings together fashion, digital communication, media, design, the humanities and the social sciences under a unified academic identity.
“At STADIO, we see creative practice and critical thinking as inseparable,” Steenekamp says. “The amalgamation formalises what has already been a lived reality at STADIO. The School of Fashion, School of Media and Design, and School of Arts and Humanities have been operating under a shared leadership structure since 2025, and the creative and intellectual connections between them have always been stronger than their separate names suggested.”
She says the formal consolidation creates a genuinely interdisciplinary home where these fields develop in conversation with one another rather than in parallel. “Students in the humanities are not separate from the creative schools – they inform them. The critical thinking, cultural analysis, and theoretical grounding that the humanities bring is precisely what elevates media, design and fashion from craft to practice. Bringing these schools under one name reflects that intellectual reality.”
No changes to qualifications or accreditation
Importantly, the consolidation does not introduce changes to existing qualifications or academic programmes. Students will continue to complete the qualifications for which they are registered, with no changes to curricula, accreditation status, timetables, lecturers, campuses, or modes of delivery. Student records and graduation outcomes remain unaffected.
Similarly, there are no changes to staff roles or employment conditions. The three schools have operated under a shared leadership structure since 2025, and the formalisation of SOFAD reflects this existing arrangement rather than introducing new reporting lines or organisational changes. There are no retrenchments associated with the consolidation.
SOFAD will function as an umbrella faculty, within which the three existing schools retain their identities: the School of Fashion (SOF), the School of Media and Design (SOMAD), and the School of Arts and Humanities (SOAAH). This structure ensures continuity for students and staff, while strengthening the collective identity of the disciplines it brings together.
Interdisciplinary learning comes to the fore
Steenekamp notes that the move also reflects broader shifts in higher education.
“Across the world, we are seeing a move away from rigid disciplinary silos towards more integrated ways of thinking and learning. Interdisciplinary positioning is increasingly recognised as a marker of institutional strength rather than dilution. Employers are looking for graduates who can combine technical skill with critical insight, and who understand the cultural and social contexts in which they work. SOFAD positions STADIO to meet that need more explicitly.”
By bringing its creative and humanities disciplines together under a single, clearly defined faculty, STADIO aims to present a more coherent academic offering and to strengthen its position as a home for both creative and analytical thinking.
The establishment of SOFAD signals a commitment to interdisciplinary education that reflects both current academic practice and the evolving demands of the world of work.
This post and content is sponsored, written and produced by STADIO.
