Key Points
Posted on Sept. 23, 2021. Updated Jan. 25, 2022
- The proposed institute is still in the planning phase. It has been referred to in the media, legislative documents and proposals to the university as The Liberty Institute, and the university initially used this name as well. It is too early, however, to say what its formal name would be, which depends on factors still to be worked out, including possible confusion with other similarly named entities.
- It will support and help attract faculty.
- The university hopes to support faculty already at UT Austin and hire three to five new faculty with teaching interests in philosophical bases for decision making and choice, government regulation, legal and policy impacts on economic outcomes and individual choice and freedoms, market design and social welfare, and social prosperity and well-being, including innovation, entrepreneurial activities, company formation and job creation.
- Any new professors will be hired within normal university protocols, which include deans and department chairs.
- A goal is to provide students who cross traditional boundaries and consider problems from multiple points of view so they can better understand, for example, how regulatory and legal environments are going to impact markets. Students also will have the analytical and quantitative skills to solve complex problems and understand more economic drivers.
- The institute UT Austin envisions will likely have some similarities to the Hoover Institute but unlike Hoover will be rooted in the academic governance structure of the university, with emphases on classroom teaching and peer-reviewed scholarship, while attracting high-quality faculty in several academic disciplines.
- Another model for the new institute is the philosophy, politics and economics department at Oxford University.
- On the academic side, we plan to do an inventory of existing courses to develop a list of new classes that may be added.
- As the university stated earlier this year, “As the state’s public flagship university, UT Austin is a unique place for debate, discussion, exploration and research. This institute would attract world-renowned academic scholars and faculty and offer unique educational opportunities and experiences for all of our students.”