The GCAS Philosophy

GCAS offers a new model to future researchers and students to be free to learn and explore knowledge without debt.

Academic freedom is compromised by student-debt. So we created a space to nurture and encourage critical thinking and reflection without economic pressures. We are co-owned by graduates and faculty so the freedom to think is inherently collaborative and global.

Our school is grounded in the following commitments:

1. Academic freedom

2. Liberal Arts

3. Creative solution building

4. Ecological problem solving and development

5. A shared mode of education production

We are a “decentralised” liberal arts-based community that encourages bold and courageous thinking grounded in history and evidence based reasoning.

The classroom should never be dominated by abstract, rote learning and trivial test-taking. Instead education should be primarily collaborative, student-centered and concerned with particular problems from contemporary social and economic events and one’s own life experience. In this way, the students become accustomed to a higher-level learning process of “questioning the question”; of learning by critically engaging the presuppositions on which questions themselves frame the “problem.”

Rather than the teacher delivering pre-existing, objective content to students presupposed as empty containers, the model is instead that of a facilitator who enables processes of mutual learning. The task for pedagogy today is to consider not just the problem per se, but the lenses through which it is understood, processed and acted upon, not only within institutions per se, but also within lived culture, where they are encountered.

Serious learning is not easy at times because it challenges your assumptions and asks you to give evidence for why you hold the beliefs you do. At times the student may adjust the beliefs they hold in order to better account for their life, desires, and social experiences. This is the beauty of the learning process — a process that is about growth, honesty, and truth.

The Pillars of GCAS

The education model we developed for our college is the first of its kind and rests on the following five pillars:

• High-Quality Faculty: our faculty co-own the college with our graduates.

• Debt-Free: We are committed to debt-free tuition levels. All accepted students are offered tuition-reduction scholarships based on the merits of their application.

• Accreditation: We offer accredited degree programmes in the European Union through our partnering institution.

As an Institution

We don’t receive funding from foundations, interests groups, or the state. We are owned and operated by ourselves cooperatively. When you become a researcher you become part of our academic community whose mission is to protect and create bold new ways of thinking and being in the world.