Musk is going to start a university! According to the latest exposure, Musk donated US$100 million (approximately 713 million yuan) to open a primary and secondary school in Austin, and will continue to expand the business, with the ultimate goal of
Musk invests 700 million to build schools
The news came to light in documents the school officially filed with the Internal Revenue Service as it applied for tax-exempt status.
Documents show that Musk provided US$100 million (approximately 713 million yuan) in seed round funding to open a school in Austin, Texas, USA.
The school will operate from secondary and primary schools and will continue to expand, culminating in the creation of a university dedicated to providing the highest level of education.
This school will provide offline teaching and distance education. The overall education model will focus on STEM, which is Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.
Teaching will emphasize the comprehensive nature of these subjects and encourage students to apply interdisciplinary knowledge and skills when solving practical problems.
Moreover, the school hopes that future university courses will combine formal teaching by experienced teachers in subjects such as mathematics, science, engineering and physics, and provide practical learning experiences including simulations, case studies, manufacturing/design projects, experiments, etc.
In other words, the school organized by Musk will focus on science and engineering, emphasizing theory as well as practice.
The school's primary and secondary school enrollment is 50 students per year, and it plans to recruit 22 Caucasian, 4 African-American, 6 Asian, 16 Latino and 2 students of other races.
The school adopts an application system, and admission conditions will be based on merit (but it is not stated based on what scores), and students will be comprehensively evaluated. Applicants who "exhibit academic curiosity, discipline, independence and innovative spirit" will be selected and admitted on a merit-based basis.
And the school promises that it "does not guarantee the admission of any client, manager, employee or other family member." If you want to be admitted, you can only rely on your own grades and strengths.
In addition, if a student is admitted but is unable to pay tuition or other fees, the school will provide tuition and financial support to the student within the scope of available resources.
The school is applying for university accreditation from the Southern Association of Colleges and Universities (SACSCOC) and is recruiting an executive director, 11 teachers and 9 administrative staff.
So the question becomes, why would Musk suddenly open a school?
Why did Musk start a university?
In fact, Musk announced on Twitter as early as 2021 that he would open a university called "Texas Science and Technology College."
But then nothing happened, and I thought that was the end of it.
As a result, this official document leaked out, and the school submitted a form to apply for tax-exempt status in October 2022, which means that Musk was actually planning to build the school at that time.
And just two days ago, Musk criticized American education on Twitter.
At that time, a user criticized American universities and believed that the top universities in the United States should re-examine their core strengths and rebuild their reputation as research and academic centers.
Musk immediately agreed and replied: "Both SpaceX and Tesla have discovered that the ability of American college graduates has declined significantly in the past few years."
Gad Saad, a professor from Concordia University in Canada with 30 years of teaching experience, agreed with Musk’s point of view. He commented:
Musk agreed with the professor, saying: "Good times make people weak."
Musk does care about education, though. First of all, Musk has successively donated money to the school in the past few years.
For example, in 2021, it will donate US$5 million (approximately 35.675 million yuan) to the non-profit education organization Khan Academy. This organization mainly provides free world-class education to students and teachers around the world.
In October this year, Tesla was also approved to donate US$750,000 (approximately 5.351 million yuan) to local organizations near the Austin factory, some of which was donated directly to the local DelValle School District to upgrade high school teaching equipment.
In addition, Musk also founded AdAstra, an experimental school in 2014, which provides free teaching mainly for the children of himself and SpaceX employees, mainly cultivating students' creativity and problem-solving abilities.
At that time, the school also abolished the grade system and classified students into different study groups not by age but by assessment of ability and interest.
Now that the official school has been exposed, I don’t know what the style of this new school will be.
Onemorething
Of course, there are also many smart car company owners in China who care about education.
The most famous one is Geely Li Shufu. Starting from the first Geely Industrial and Commercial School (now Zhejiang Automobile Vocational and Technical College) founded in 1997, it has established at least 9 colleges and universities. The teaching level covers from secondary vocational colleges to undergraduates, as well as graduate students and doctoral students. Automotive engineering is the key training direction.
According to incomplete statistics, these schools have trained more than 150,000 talents for the society, and 10% of them have entered Geely.
In addition, Fuyao University of Science and Technology founded by Cao Dewang, founder of automotive safety glass giant Fuyao Group, is about to be completed recently.
The school is located in Fuzhou High-tech Zone, Fujian Province. It will set up seven colleges, including undergraduate and graduate students, with the goal of building a world-class university with high-level science and engineering research.
In terms of cultivating talents, these smart car bosses are more serious than the other.