The Animation SchoolTAS

The Animation School is a private higher education institution that teaches animation and related craft skills in South Africa. It is registered with the Department of Higher Education and Training as a private higher education institution under the Higher Education Act of 1997, under registration certificate number 2009/HE07/013, and it trades as The Animation School (Pty) Ltd. Its two accredited qualifications are registered on the National Qualifications Framework and the school states that both are accredited by the Council on Higher Education. The school says it was registered in July 2000 and that its first group of students started in Cape Town in 2001.

Teaching happens in three ways. The Diploma in Digital Animation, SAQA ID 71756, sits at NQF level 6, carries 360 credits and takes a minimum of three years full time. It can be studied on campus in Cape Town or Johannesburg, or fully online, and the school states that online and on-campus graduates receive the same qualification. The Higher Certificate in 2D Animation, SAQA ID 124629, sits at NQF level 5, carries 120 credits and runs for one year full time, delivered online. Both are daytime programmes, with live classes generally timetabled between 08:30 and 16:30. Online delivery uses live sessions on Microsoft Teams alongside recorded material on Moodle, which means a stable connection and a fairly powerful desktop computer are needed. Alongside the qualifications, the school runs unaccredited six-week online short courses in areas such as 2D animation, 3D animation, storyboarding, stop motion and motion graphics.

Entry to the two qualifications requires a National Senior Certificate with admission to diploma or degree study, or a National Certificate (Vocational) at level 4, plus a portfolio of recent original artwork, a comic-strip exercise and a one-page motivation letter. There is no application fee. For 2027 the school published diploma tuition of R131 000 on full settlement and higher certificate tuition of R65 000 on full settlement, with instalment options costing more, and it lists on-campus residence in Cape Town as a separate cost. The school states that it awards internal scholarships only in second and third year, and points first-year applicants towards outside bursary and loan providers.