Quito Institute of Liberal Arts and Sciences (QILAS)

Alternative University

QILAS invites a wide range of students from diverse cultural and socio-economic backgrounds to engage with the spirit of the liberal arts and sciences. QILAS offers a Core Curriculum where students explore the arts, humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences offering a foundational conceptual and contemplative view of the world. QILAS also invites students to engage in experiential learning through its Laboratories currently following three tracks: Pedagogical, Research, and Social Innovation. QILAS invites students to engage in learning through a pedagogy of discovery, self-reflection and creative inquiry.

Quito, Ecuador

QILAS offers three main methods of instruction:

Our core method during our core curriculum is discussion based learning (DBL). DBL allows students to develop a wide appreciation of perspectives as they co-construct and re-claim knowledge. Students are invited to think critically and creatively as we together analyze prominent thinkers and core interdisciplinary debates.
Project based learning (PBL) is the main method of instruction during our Laboratories where students can propose and develop their own projects in the different tracks they chose to participate in.
Lastly, we engage in experiential learning as a method of implementing strategic and tactical thinking and action towards complex problem solving. Making the team the main source of innovation, we weave each other together profoundly and thus allowing profound disruption in the urban fabric of Quito.

As a recently founded Ecoversity in Quito, QILAS seeks to invite activists, scholars, young and old to come together in order to radically rethink our education and learning. We are committed to re-imgaine and re-inveting higher education by cultivating human and ecological flourishing.