University of Austin
The idea for the new University of Austin (UATX) was launched in 2021, when its founding president penned an essay, “We Can’t Wait for Universities to Fix Themselves. So We’re Starting a New One.” The first classes were offered in fall 2024 to an inaugural cohort of 92 students.
The aim of the group of dissatisfied scholars and leaders who spearheaded this project was to create a learning environment free of narrow ideological policing. Accordingly, the university has no Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) infrastructure. The university instead boasts an admissions policy centered on Merit, Excellence, and Intelligence (MEI).
Likewise, UATX foregrounds its commitment to free speech, providing structural supports for open inquiry and free expression in its constitution. This document expressly guarantees students a right to voluntary association, freedom to criticize the university, and immunity from ideological requirements imposed by faculty or staff. A representative of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) said that he was “glad to see that the University of Austin’s policies provide robust protection for student and faculty free speech rights.”
The UATX constitution requires that all hiring decisions be made without regard to such factors as “political affiliation.” Professors have a range of ideological backgrounds, with far greater conservative and libertarian representation than exists at the vast majority of American universities.
The admission of students based only on merit is constitutionally mandated. Some insiders report that a majority of UATX students lean politically right, likely because of selection bias among applicants rather than conscious intent.
The curriculum at UATX is superb. Freshmen and sophomores are required to take “Intellectual Foundations” seminars that inquire into the origins of “civilization and political life” through the reading of great texts, ancient and modern. Students are meant to make progress toward greater specialization in UATX’s interdisciplinary centers, which replace typical universities’ specialized departments. A self-guided Polaris Project, which could range from an entrepreneurial endeavor to an artistic work, serves as a capstone. No DEI courses, required or otherwise, mar the course catalog.
Despite the school’s considerable strengths, students considering UATX may be wary of its novelty and its lack of accreditation. While certified by the state to confer degrees, the university will likely not be accredited until after its first class graduates in 2028. Credits from UATX are not automatically transferable to other institutions until that time. Given this uncertainty, the university has unique challenges in recruitment. However, its first class boasted very high median SAT/ACT scores, a true achievement for an upstart school.
The university is open about its accreditation status and pitches students on the appeal of being part of building and shaping something new. Currently, a Founder’s Scholarship covers all tuition, with other annual student costs totaling an estimated $24,500. With no graduates forthcoming for a few more years, nothing can be said empirically about how UATX enables students to perform and earn in the workforce.