The thirty-eighth annual Mises University, where I have lectured for more than thirty of those years, will be held from July 28th to August 3rd at the Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama. Year after year, student attendees from all over the world tell us that it was the best week of their school year; that they learned more about the economic world in that week than in four years of college; that they would love to come back next summer; and that they will urge their friends and classmates to apply next year.
Mises University is the world’s leading instructional program in Austrian economics. Staffed by some of the world’s leading Austrian School economists, all of whom are excellent speakers and teachers, students attend lectures and discussions all day long for a week where they learn all about how markets work, competition and monopoly, value and utility theory, money and banking, business cycles, the organization of industry, economic history, the philosophy of science, financial economics, and much more.
After the first two days focusing on the core principles of Austrian economics the rest of the week is filled with dozens of elective classes on myriad subjects ranging from socialism, minimum-wage laws, and political cronyism to protectionism, “wokeness” and Big Tech, economics of regulation, economics of bureaucracy, energy economics, medical care economics, the economics of war, and much more. A highlight of the week will be a special “mystery speaker.”
The list of topics is so broad because, as Ludwig von Mises wrote in Human Action: “Economics must not be relegated to classrooms and statistical offices and must not be left to esoteric circles. It is the philosophy of human life and action and concerns everybody and everything. It is the pith of civilization and of man’s human existence.” Indeed, Mises believed that it was the “civic duty” of “all reasonable men” (and women) to not rely only on the pronouncements of the “experts” but to educate yourself and essentially become your own economist. Not to become a “scholar,” necessarily, but a better citizen who has familiarized himself with economic principles. Mises University is the best place in the world to do that, or to jump start an academic career in the Misesian/Rothbardian tradition of the scholarship of freedom. Indeed, many of today’s Mises University faculty were themselves students at Mises U. during their college years.
Thanks to the generosity of Mises Institute supporters there is no registration fee for students who are accepted. The only cost is driving to Auburn or getting yourself to one of the nearby airports (Atlanta, Montgomery, Columbus, Birmingham) and taking a taxi or shuttle service to the Auburn University Hotel. Students receive admission to all sessions, accommodations for seven nights, three meals a day, transportation to and from the hotel to the Mises Institute each day, and refreshment breaks.
In the spirit of meritocracy and capitalism there is an optional exam at the end of the week where the top student as chosen by a faculty examining committee receives the Doug French scholarship prize of $2,500; second and third place students receive the Kenneth Garschina prizes of $1,500 and $750 respectively.
So, dear mises.org readers, consider getting the college students in your lives – in any discipline – to apply to Mises University. The deadline to apply to the best week of their year is June 24. Mises University 2024 Student Scholarship Application | Mises Institute
