La Universidad San Francisco de Quito (USFQ) is a private, non-denominational liberal arts university developed on the American model and operating on the semester system. The university is located in the Valley of Tumbaco in the region of Cumbayá, a short drive from the center of Ecuador’s capital city, Quito.

USFQ was founded in 1985. Today it offers more than 40 different degrees at both the undergraduate and postgraduate level. Undergraduates receive a liberal arts education. The basic course requirements in both the humanities and the sciences are similar to those required at liberal arts colleges in the United States. Approximately 2,500 students attend the university, of whom around 10% are international students. There is an active exchange policy with a number of universities in the United States.

USFQ has awide variety of different faculties , including: anthropology, art history, economics, environmental studies, philosophy, geology, history, international relations, politics, psychology, Spanishand the Quichua language.

The USFQ campus is renowned for its beauty. Its school of Oriental Studies, for instance, is housed in a pagoda. Campus buildings are named after the world’s great figures, thinkers and creators, such as Aristotle, Buddha, Cicero, Einstein, Epicurus, Galileo, and Leonardo Da Vinci.

Country fact file
13.2m people live in Ecuador. Per capita income is estimated at $3,300, with 65% living below the poverty line. The literacy rate is 93%.