Article by Rebel News staff

Rebel News CEO Ezra Levant spoke with University of Austin co-founder, Niall Ferguson, about the early success of the institution and the importance of academic freedom while on the streets of Davos, Switzerland at this year's World Economic Forum summit.

Ferguson, who co-founded the University of Austin in Texas in 2021, shared an update about the university with Ezra while walking to an event earlier this week.

"We have defied the skeptics and critics because the university, four years after its foundation, it's thriving. And anybody who visits our campus can see what fantastic students we have and what a great atmosphere of intellectual freedom we've created," he said.

"I'm hugely proud of the University of Austin, and especially the students," he added.

Ezra asked Ferguson about how he thinks the university will evolve over the coming years. "In just a few years, we'll be a much larger institution," he said.

"I've often said, we have as a role model the early years of the University of Chicago, which grew extraordinarily rapidly in student numbers in its first ten years," he continued.

Ferguson went on: "Ten years from now, I hope we'll have thousands of students and we'll occupy a larger footprint in downtown Austin."

Ezra also questioned Ferguson about the biggest challenges facing the University of Austin. "Any startup is a challenge," he said.

"But to do a startup in academia is really difficult because there's a lot of skepticism from the establishment institutions. But the establishment institutions just failed us so badly over the last ten years that they all benefit from our kind of competition," Ferguson continued.

"We're trying to reinvent the university, reinvent governance, create new rules around the way a university works. And I think within ten years, people will see that we've been a force for good not just in Austin, but across America."

Follow all our coverage from Davos and support our independent journalism at www.WEFReports.com.

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