Oprah Winfrey said the Oprah Winfrey School South Africa closure will come at the end of 2027, ending the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy of Girls in its current form and shifting the work into scholarships. The remaining students will finish at other top-tier schools, with Winfrey paying their tuition through graduation.
She made the announcement on Wednesday, July 29, and said the academy will graduate two more classes before the transition. After those students finish, the expanded scholarship program will begin.
Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy of Girls
The academy opened in 2007 and has graduated more than 1,000 girls. Winfrey invested hundreds of millions of dollars in the school, which was created to educate girls from disadvantaged communities across South Africa.
A news release cited a study saying almost all of the graduates surveyed went on to pursue higher education and said their education positively transformed their families. That record helps explain why the closing is not a simple shutdown but a handoff from one campus to a broader scholarship model.
South Africa scholarship plan
Winfrey said the new approach is meant to reach more girls in South Africa. “The dream was never simply to build a school. It was to invest in the limitless potential of young women.”
She added, “my mission doesn't end with one campus. It continues in every girl whose future can be transformed through education.” In the same statement, she said, “I'm excited that this next chapter will allow us to reach even more young women across South Africa and continue the promise that began more than 20 years ago”.
After the 2027 handoff
The provincial government will take over and continue operating the facility as a school after 2027. Winfrey’s role shifts to funding the remaining students through graduation and then expanding access through scholarships, while the campus itself changes hands.
She called the academy her greatest legacy in a 2019 PEOPLE interview and said, “These girls are my deepest, greatest joy.” The school is ending in its current form, but the next phase is built to keep the education path open for more girls rather than fewer.
