In Austin, Texas, an ambitious experiment in higher education is taking shape and, as Simon Haines reports, it is already delivering remarkable results. The University of Austin (UA), barely a year into its life, occupies a single floor of a heritage building overlooking Congress Avenue. With just 92 students, a compact faculty and daily proximity between everyone on campus, the atmosphere is one of intensity, purpose and shared mission.
At the recent First Principles Summit UA’s annual moment of selfscrutiny Haines found a university driven not only by intellectual ambition but by a moral conviction about what higher education should be. Its founders, including Pano Kanelos, Bari Weiss, Joe Lonsdale and Niall Ferguson, established UA as a response to the “desperate” problems they saw in American academia: the erosion of truthseeking, ideological conformity, bloated administration, distorted admissions and hollowedout curricula.
Their solution is a strikingly coherent four year degree. Two foundation years introduce students to the central ideas of Western civilisation and its global connections through intensive smallgroup study of great texts across humanities, politics, STEM and economics. The final two years deepen into specialisation or into a dedicated leadership and entrepreneurship track. Crucially, UA also insists on transparent, meritbased admissions; its current cohort sits around the 99th percentile SAT equivalent.
The results, Haines argues, are extraordinary. He describes undergraduate classes operating at near Masters level, a statistics seminar on likelihood that was “riveting”, and a philosophyofhistory discussion ranging effortlessly from Thucydides to Trevelyan. Students are articulate, fearless and deeply engaged, whether in class or at the weekly lectures led by visiting scholars.
This revival of liberal education is part of a larger movement, supported by the rapidly expanding “Great Hearts” classical school network and helped along by several young Australians now in leadership positions.
Small classes, a rigorous curriculum, a vibrant intellectual community, serious students, lighttouch administration and a single animating ideal truthseeking. Haines’ conclusion is simple: the model works. And Australia, he suggests, should take note.