Institution Information
- Quest University
- Private Higher Education provider
- 700 students, based in Squamish (near Vancouver) on the west coast of Canada
Practices Identified
- Very broad curriculum breaking down traditional subject silos.
- Innovative pedagogy that instils different approaches to thinking and argument including through project based learning.
- Students ‘build their own major’ to focus on an important question – their Quest – that has relevance to real life.
Practice Description
Founded in 2007, all students at Quest work towards a single broad degree – Bachelor of Arts and Sciences.
All first year students take common courses, such as ‘cornerstone’ that provide a foundation of different approaches to thinking and problem solving, aiming to give them as broad a perspective as possible. The move away from traditional subject departments encourages cross-pollination, fundamentally reshaping the curriculum.
Over the four years of their course, students take a total of 32 different courses cutting across traditional subject disciplines. Pedagogy has a strong focus on self-directed learning working towards seminars, presentations, discussions and experiential project based learning. Tutors are given a high degree of freedom to find the best methods for them, their courses and students.
At the end of year two, all students take a key course called “Question”. Here, they design their own major, shaped as a Quest. Following peer and staff approval, they select the courses and real life experiences over the following two years that help them to answer that question. That answer can take many forms, from a traditional dissertation to a business plan or a piece of creative art.