The University of Austin (UATX) is a private nonsectarian liberal arts university located in Austin, Texas.^[1][2] In October 2023, the university received a two-year certification to operate as a degree-granting institution from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.^[3] The university has established a campus in downtown Austin's Scarbrough Building, and is scheduled to enroll its first undergraduate cohort in the fall of 2024.^[3]

The University of Austin is currently seeking full federal accreditation and is not yet recognized by the U.S. National Center for Education Statistics College Navigator and students are not eligible for federal financial aid.^[4][5]

The proposal for a University of Austin was first publicized on November 8, 2021 in an article by founding president Pano Kanelos, formerly the president of St. John's College, in journalist Bari Weiss's Substack newsletter Common Sense (now The Free Press).^[6][7]

As of 2021^[update], the institution did not formally exist, but the proposers reported that they were seeking accreditation^{[2][6][8][9][10]} through the Higher Learning Commission, an accreditor recognized by the United States Department of Education and authorized by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.^[11]

As of November 2023^[update], UATX said it had received over 6,000 inquiries from potential faculty.^[3]

On June 9, 2022, the University of Austin was taking applications for its "Forbidden Courses" program with two-week-long sessions in the old (pre-1954) Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas, Texas.^[12] Despite the name of the university, UATX first offered classes in Dallas, Texas and not Austin. Conservative philanthropist Harlan Crow provided office space in Dallas for UATX. Crow is a major donor to the university.^[13]

In October 2023, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board gave the university certification to award degrees. The school lacked accreditation at that time. The two-year certification to grant degrees can be extended for up to eight years, by which time it must achieve accreditation to continue.^[3][14]

In November 2023, the university began accepting applications for its first four-year undergraduate cohort enrolling in Fall 2024, and established a campus in Austin's Scarbrough Building. The entire class of 100 students would receive full four-year scholarships, paid from private donations the university had raised.^[3] As of November 2023^[update], the university had raised $200 million from 2,600 donors.^[3]

The founding faculty fellows include Peter Boghossian, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, and Kathleen Stock.^[8] Other founders include former Harvard President Lawrence Summers, former ACLU President Nadine Strossen, and former president of the American Enterprise Institute Arthur Brooks.^[7]

In November 2021, the university's website listed Robert Zimmer, Larry Summers, John Nunes, Gordon Gee, Steven Pinker, Deirdre McCloskey, Leon Kass, Jonathan Haidt, Glenn Loury, Joshua Katz, Vickie Sullivan, Geoffrey Stone, Bill McClay, and Tyler Cowen as being affiliated with the university.^[15] Writing in The Week that month, Samuel Goldman observed that no prominent members of the board of advisors had yet resigned their academic appointments to join the University of Austin faculty, suggesting that their "lack of personal commitment casts doubt on the value of their support."^[16] Kathleen Stock clarified that her role was not full-time, and that she would not move to Austin.^[8] Harvard University professor Steven Pinker said that although he was part of the advisory board, he had no plans to teach there; he later resigned from the board.^[17] West Virginia University president Gordon Gee said "Serving in an advisory capacity does not mean I believe or agree with everything that other advisers may share. I do not agree other universities are no longer seeking the truth nor do I feel that higher education is irreparably broken."^[18]

On November 11, 2021, Robert Zimmer announced his resignation from the UATX board, saying that UATX had made statements about higher education that "diverged very significantly from my own views".^[19] UATX put out a statement on Steven Pinker's resignation from the board, and apologized for creating "unnecessary complications" for Pinker and Zimmer due to UATX not initially clarifying what their advisory roles entailed on the venture's website.^[20]

On July 6, 2022, the school announced that Richard Dawkins had joined its advisory board.^[21]

The proposal for a University of Austin was described by Gabriella Swerling in The Daily Telegraph^[9] as "anti-cancel culture" and by Alex Shephard in The New Republic as "anti-woke".^[22]

According to the university's website, they plan to not use race, gender, or class in their admissions decisions, stating this is because the school "stands firmly against that sort of discrimination".^[7]

The initial announcement of the project received some positive reception,^[23] including praise from Law & Liberty for ushering in "a new era in educational reform,"^[24] and applause from The New Criterion for its efforts to "keep that old flame of free inquiry alive."^[25] New York Times opinion columnist Ross Douthat saw the launch of a new university as a positive development, pointing out how few major universities have been established since the nineteenth century, but acknowledged how expensive doing so would be. He also saw conflicting forces in the project, including the "tension between the desire to promote great academic seriousness and the culture-war flag-waving that might be necessary to rally donor support".^[26]

The project also garnered criticism. Initial responses to the project included criticism of the lack of a plan to achieve the project's goals.^[2] The New York Times journalist Anemona Hartocollis questioned whether the founders would be able to "translate a provocative idea into a viable institution" while The New Republic's Alex Shephard described the plan as "largely half baked".^[17][22] Jennifer Wunder, a professor at Georgia Gwinnett College who participated in the process of obtaining her institution's initial accreditation, considered the proposed timeline to establish accredited graduate and undergraduate programs to be nearly impossible to meet.^[27]

On Twitter, Weiss's former colleague Nikole Hannah-Jones, along with others, drew comparisons with Trump University.^{[2][18][16][28][29][30]} Writing in The Washington Post, political scientist and journalist Daniel W. Drezner called comparisons between UATX and Trump University "unkind and untrue".^[18] John Warner at Inside Higher Ed said "I think it is unfair to call it a scam or grift, because I have high confidence that the intentions behind the project are sincere."^[27]