Uned

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National University for Distance Education Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia image = N/A


Established	1972
Type	Public
Rector	Juan Gimeno Ullastre
Staff	9,630
Students	180,000 [1]
Location	(various cities), Spain
Website	uned.es

The Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED), is the public Spanish Open University. It was founded in 1972 following the idea of the UK Open University to give higher education chances to everyone. It awards the same qualifications of other Spanish universities and they are equally valid. However, some special features of UNED make it different from most other Spanish universities. This is due to the fact that it is nationwide in scope, uses different methodology, and has a wide social influence with programs on radio and TV.

UNED’s mission is to be present as a centre of excellence throughout the world. UNED currently has 60 study centres in Spain and 20 abroad thanks to the cooperation with local institutions. These centres provide face-to-face sessions with professors once a week. The international centres can be found in Bata, Bern, Bonn, Brussels, Buenos Aires, Caracas, Lisbon, London, Malabo, México D.F., Miami, Munich, New York, Paris, Rome, Rosario, Sao Paulo, Tangiers, Tokio and Washington D.C.

UNED is the second largest university in Europe with more than 150.000 students and since 1997 it has held the UNESCO chair in Distance Education which promotes research, development and documentation in the field of distance education.