Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board gives first go-ahead to new University of Austin
Nearly two years after announcing plans for a new institution, the University of Austin has received permission to grant bachelor’s degrees and start accepting students.
In celebration of this, the new university is offering its inaugural 100-member class four-year, full-tuition scholarships. Applications are now open.
Next month, the private university will move into the Scarbrough Building in downtown Austin, where it will have its offices and classrooms. The university is currently hiring faculty and said it has had interest from 6,000 professors.
At the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board’s October meeting, the board approved the issuance of a certificate of authority to the University of Austin. This allows the university to issue a Bachelor of Arts in liberal studies for the next two years, according to an email from the coordinating board.
The board cannot accredit institutions — rather, it can issue this certificate of authority while an outside accreditor recognized by the board evaluates the University of Austin’s proposal.
Pano Kanelos, founding president of the university and the former president of St. John's College in Maryland, said the review process is rigorous, requiring the school to detail the financial model, curriculum, and student and campus life.
Now, the University of Austin is undergoing the accreditation process.
“Like every other university, we're going to spend the next five to seven years working with the accreditors and meeting all their standards, and then after the first cycle, you just have to renew your accreditation over time,” he said.
Six other institutions in Texas are also operating under this certificate, the coordinating board said.
Kanelos said each student will undertake a Polaris Project — a four-year project focused on addressing a societal need. The school will also have an innovative curriculum led by the values of academic freedom and free inquiry.
“What we're offering is a university that's really centered around building, creating, innovating,” he said. “There's no other university in the world that essentially has as its focus, across all four years, teaching students how to build things for the common good.”
He said Austin was the “most obvious place” for the location, given its recent growth and its focus on innovation and entrepreneurship.
In terms of students, he said the university is interested in attracting self-starters, academic high-achievers and creative people. To start, there will be three major areas of study and programs: economics, politics and history; English and creative writing; and data science and computer science.
The institution has raised more than $200 million from thousands of donors and has already hosted various graduate, undergraduate and high school programs. The money will go toward the scholarships.
Students are “going to be helping us create the culture, create the academic programs and create all the things that future generations will benefit from,” Kanelos said. “And because of their contribution to the institution, we wanted to offer them full four-year tuition scholarships.”
Kanelos said the University of Austin is excited and hopeful about this next step.
“What’s most exciting to me, personally, is we've shown that you can create new universities,” he said. “I think people sort of gave up on the idea that you create new institutions. And so we're proving that you can, and I think that's really, really heartening and gratifying.”
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: University of Austin to start accepting students, offers free tuition
