Billionaire Gives $100 Million to University of Austin for Free Tuition

By Jessica Priest, The Texas Tribune

AUSTIN, TX — Billionaire Jeff Yass, a major backer of efforts to expand private school vouchers, donated $100 million to offer free tuition permanently to students who enroll at the University of Austin, the fledgling private university founded by critics of traditional higher education who argue colleges have grown hostile to free speech and merit.

The university, which announced the gift last month, did not initially identify Yass as the donor. It named him in a Wednesday news release.

The gift comes amid a broader push by wealthy conservative donors and political leaders to build new education models outside public systems and to exert influence on existing institutions, which they say have become ideologically imbalanced. 

“Loved the idea of starting a ‘free speech’ school,” Yass, one of the University of Austin’s early backers, wrote Wednesday in an email responding to questions from The Texas Tribune about his latest donation. “Only condition is the school never takes government money. Hopefully we can show the world that philanthropists can replace the government in funding schools if we run a tight ship.”

Yass, co-founder of the Pennsylvania-based trading firm Susquehanna International Group, has become a significant force in Texas politics. He donated $10 million to Gov. Greg Abbott in the past two years, and much of that support went toward unseating Republican House members who opposed private-school vouchers. The fight ended in April when Texas lawmakers passed a $1 billion voucher program. 

Now, higher education is under similar pressure, and the competing visions are playing out side by side. Just a few miles away, the University of Texas at Austin — the UT system's flagship university, which has lost tens of millions in federal research funding since the start of the second Trump presidency — is weighing whether to sign a federal agreement that would tie preferential funding to adopting the Trump administration’s priorities on campus speech, gender definitions and admissions. The University of Austin, in contrast, says Yass’s donation will allow it to offer free tuition while avoiding government funding altogether. 

The University of Austin launched in 2021 and welcomed its first undergraduate class in 2024. The school offers a four-year bachelor of arts degree in liberal studies at its downtown Austin campus. It offers automatic admission to applicants who meet high standardized test score thresholds. 

The school said Yass’s donation launches a $300 million campaign to ensure its students can prepare for careers without taking on debt. The university said it has already received $50 million from Yass, with the rest expected to arrive over the next four years.

The university currently enrolls about 150 students across its first two classes and aims to grow to between 400 and 500 students in the coming years, University President Carlos Carvalho said in an interview. He said the school plans to remain in its downtown space rather than build a traditional campus. Carvalho said the university’s tuition-free model depends on philanthropy and future alumni support.

“Our future is attached to the success of our students and their philanthropic return to us,” he said.

This article first appeared on The Texas Tribune.