Universidad San Francisco de Quito USFQ is a liberal-arts, private university located in Quito, Ecuador. It was the first totally private self-financed university in Ecuador and the first liberal-arts institution in the Andean region. Academically, USFQ ranks as one of the three-top universities in the ranking of Ecuadorian universities, issued by the Ecuadorian Council of Evaluation and Accreditation of High Education.