On November 11, 2021, Robert Zimmer announced his resignation from the university board, saying that UATX had made statements about higher education that "diverged very significantly from my own views".[16] Shortly thereafter, Pinker followed suit.[17] UATX apologized for creating "unnecessary complications" for Pinker and Zimmer by not clarifying [sooner] what their advisory roles entailed.[18]
On June 9, 2022, the University of Austin opened applications for its "Forbidden Courses" program with two-week-long sessions in the old (pre-1954) Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas, Texas.[19]Harlan Crow[20] provided classroom space in Dallas for UATX. On July 6, 2022, the school announced that Richard Dawkins had joined its advisory board.[21][22][23] In December 2022, board member Heather Heying resigned stating that the school was not adequately invested in scientific inquiry and "does not represent my scientific and pedagogical values."[24]
The Scarbrough Building in downtown Austin, home of the University of Austin
After receiving certification from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to award degrees in October 2023, UATX 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 received full four-year scholarships, paid from private donations. By November 2023, UATX had reportedly raised $200 million from 2,600 donors and received over 6,000 inquiries from potential faculty.[1] Large donors behind the $200 million included Harlan Crow and Bill Ackman.[25]
In late 2023, UATX reported a surge in interest from donors "horrified by the response at top-tier universities" to the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel.[26]
In June 2024, the University of Austin announced a $5 million bitcoin endowment in partnership with cryptocurrency platform Unchained Capital.[27] In November 2024, UATX was featured in a CBS News60 Minutes segment titled "Disruptor U."[28]
In May 2025, Carlos Carvalho became the second president of UATX.[29] On July 18, 2025, Larry Summers posted to X that he had resigned from the advisory board "effective today ... as I am not comfortable with the course that UATX has set nor the messages it promulgates".[30] Nell Gluckman, writing in The Chronicle of Higher Education, reported that near the end of 2025 the UATX website indicated it had 34 staff members in addition to faculty, while LinkedIn showed that about 20 employees had departed during the year, including "the president, the provost, the lead fund raiser, the executive director of admissions, as well as people who worked in events, operations, and other positions" although the university continued to obtain large donations and enrolled its second class. Mike Shires, who served as chief of staff and senior vice president for strategy until leaving UATX in May 2025 said, "Some of that was them just naturally moving on, some of that is the nature of start-ups, some of that is strategic decisions made by the leadership."[31]
On November 5, 2025, UATX announced, in conjunction with a $100 million gift from Libertarian investor Jeff Yass, that they will never charge tuition or accept government funding.[9][10]
Academics
UATX’s undergraduate program begins with a core curriculum consisting of 15 courses based on a Great Books canon.[32] In their junior and senior years, students specialize in interdisciplinary academic centers.[33] A practical capstone project is undertaken across all four years.[34] Faculty staff include Tim Kane, Boris Fishman, Eliah G. Overbey, Michael Shellenberger, and Coleman Hughes.[35]
Admissions
Admission is based on a policy that requires both "Academic Capability" and a "Capacity for Creativity and Leadership". Academic Capability is demonstrated through performance on standardized tests or other public examinations, grade point average, class ranking, enrollment in an academically rigorous course of study (e.g., Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate programs), and English composition and writing skills. Capacity for Creativity and Leadership is primarily demonstrated through an applicant's reported activities, as well as a personal statement and essay. The university also selects applicants who will provide intellectual pluralism for each class.[36]
In March 2025, UATX introduced its merit-first admissions policy where applicants with at least a 1460 SAT, 33 ACT, or 105 CLT earn automatic admission. The automatic admission is contingent on meeting eligibility requirements and passing an integrity check.[37][38]
Accreditation
UATX is a candidate institution for accreditation with the Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE).[5] The Commission’s most recent action on UATX’s accreditation status on August 28, 2025 was to grant "candidate for accreditation" status and to make the university an official institutional member of MSCHE.[39][40] According to its official website, UATX expects the final report of the accreditation evaluators to go to MSCHE in March 2028 and the university could be accredited prior to the issuance of its first undergraduate degrees.[39]
Reception
The initial announcement of the project received positive praise,[41] including praise from libertarian nonprofit magazine Law & Liberty for ushering in "a new era in educational reform,"[42] and applause from conservative magazine The New Criterion for its efforts to "keep that old flame of free inquiry alive."[43]New York Times 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, while acknowledging 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".[44]
The project also garnered some criticism. Initial responses to the project included criticism of the lack of a plan to achieve the project's goals.[5]New York Times journalist Anemona Hartocollis questioned in 2021 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".[45][46] Jennifer Wunder, a professor at Georgia Gwinnett College who participated in the process of obtaining her institution's initial accreditation, in a since-deleted Twitter thread,[47] described UATX’s 2021 business plan timeline to establish accredited graduate and undergraduate programs as nearly impossible to meet.[48] The proposal for a University of Austin was described in 2021 by Gabriella Swerling in The Daily Telegraph[49] as "anti-cancel culture" and by Alex Shephard in The New Republic as "anti-woke".[46]
After initially holding silent about the reasons for his resignation from UATX’s advisory board, Steven Pinker told The Harvard Crimson that UATX had "confused freedom of speech with the political right"—that it had staffed itself primarily with people on the right, regardless of their position on free speech, extending to some opponents of it.[17] However, upon the announcement of the certification of UATX’s undergraduate program, Pinker acknowledged UATX’s "maturity" in light of his previous "misgivings," lauding its newly earned certification and the "contrast & challenge to the legacy universities" it offers.[50]
↑"UATX Statement about Robert Zimmer and Steven Pinker". University of Austin (Press release). November 15, 2021. Archived from the original on March 30, 2023. Retrieved November 15, 2021. That press release said, [and the "archive" copy of it (courtesy of web.archive.org) still says], in part [QUOTE:] "The advisory board was never intended to be a corporate body that endorsed everything that UATX did or said".
↑Mendenhall, Allen (November 12, 2021). "Time for a New University?". Law&Liberty. Archived from the original on November 8, 2023. Retrieved November 8, 2023.
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