There's a controversial new university that everyone’s talking about.
It’s called the University of Austin, or UATX, but is colloquially known as the IDW (Intellectual Dark Web) University.
It was founded in response to what some see as increasing illiberalism on university campuses. The uni’s goal, put simply, is the pursuit of truth at all costs.
Academics such as Peter Boghossian and Kathleen Stock, who were effectively bullied out of their roles in academia due to their heterodox teaching, are the founding faculty fellows, along with the outspoken activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali. As you can see, the uni’s already associated with some big names, and already has support from Jon Haidt, Steve Pinker, Bari Weiss, Glenn Loury and Lex Fridman.
So far its been criticised for its inability to confer degrees, although it has plans to become accredited in the near future.
Another point to note is that it’s aiming to be a pretty old-school uni, with classes only offered in-person.
The goals of the uni are really commendable, and in many ways they align with what we’re doing at Think Inc. Academy: teaching students how to think, and not what to think, especially in our Critical Thinking and Politics as the New Religion courses.
We’re proud of our ability to do this through new forms of online education, and as a result, we have students from all over: Canada, Kenya, the UK, Spain and Brazil. You can't get that from a traditional uni 😉
Is UATX making the right move when it says it wants to emulate a traditional uni – the type that forced them out in the first place?