National University of Distance Education

National University of Distance Education
Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED)

Motto	Omnibus mobilibus mobilior sapientia
Type	Public
Established	1972
Budget	€230 million (2012)^[1]
Rector	Alejandro Tiana Ferrer
Administrative staff	12,782
Students	260,079
Undergraduates	178.601
Postgraduates	7,405
Location	Various cities. Madrid, Spain (headquarters)
Campus	Distance learning
Website	UNED

The National University of Distance Education, known in Spanish as Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED), is a distance learning and research university founded in 1972 and is the only university run by the central government of Spain. It has headquarters in Madrid, Spain, with campuses in all Spanish autonomous communities. In addition, there are 14 study centres, and 3 exam points, in 13 countries in Europe, Americas and Africa. The University awards undergraduate and postgraduate degrees, as well as non-degree qualifications such as diplomas and certificates, or continuing education units.

UNED combines traditional onsite education with distance learning programs. With over 260,000 students,^[2] UNED is the largest university in Spain and the second largest in Europe.^[3]

Origins and methodology

UNED was founded in 1972 following the idea of the UK's Open University to provide quality higher and continuing education opportunities to all through a distance education system. It awards the same qualifications as other Spanish universities and has the same entry requirements. This implies that it is not "Open". Even though the study is at distance, admissions are as strict as for "onsite" education and exams are supervised as in the other Spanish universities. However, some special features of UNED make it different from most other Spanish universities: it is nationwide in scope, applies the most advanced teaching technologies and has a wide social influence with radio and TV programming.

UNED is a university where distance is no object for the fact that, through its educational methodology, UNED is the only university that offers the possibility of obtaining formal qualifications adapted to the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) from anywhere in the world. Likewise, UNED is the only university with centers in the Americas, Africa, Europe and all the Autonomous Communities of Spain; finally, training at UNED is carried out using new technologies, principally the Internet.^[4]

International presence

UNED’s mission is to be present as a centre of excellence throughout the world. UNED currently has 61 study centres in Spain and 14 abroad, thanks to the co-operation of local institutions. These centres provide face-to-face sessions with professors once a week. The international centres are in Bata, Bern, Brussels, Buenos Aires, Caracas, Frankfurt, Lima, London, Malabo, Mexico City, Paris and São Paulo. Additionally, there are exam points in Bogotá, Berlin, New York, Rome and Santiago de Chile.

Affiliation

Later 2012 the Spanish newspaper El País featured the story about the launch of UNX, a new online platform for teaching entrepreneurship through building mobile apps with App Inventor. Massachusetts Institute of Technology Center for Mobile Learning is a collaborating partner in this project, along with Spanish partners UNED. The UNX online courses are intended to bring open learning about technology and entrepreneurship to the entire Spanish-speaking world.^[5]

Academic profile

Teaching methods

UNED features the most complete and advanced methodology for distance learning, putting a whole range of measures and human resources at the disposal of students to enable autonomous learning tailored to their needs and schedules. Based on the use of active methodologies in which students are the protagonist of their own learning, this system is the underlying concept of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) for the training of professionals capable of taking up the challenges of the knowledge society.

UNED provides instruction by means of a distance learning modality characterized by the use of a specific didactic methodology. The methodology combines the use of print and audiovisual media with that of new technologies, especially virtual learning communities. There are also various systems of communication between professors and students as well as on-site assistance to students from professor-tutors at the Centers.

This methodology is detailed in the items below:

Human resources for student support: In the Faculties, teaching teams are responsible for the assessment of learning and the preparation of programs and teaching materials. The student receives support from professors online, by telephone or via videoconference. Should they wish, students can attend tutorials at the Associated Centers given by specialized tutors. Associated Centers also facilitate the formation of study and working groups made up of students from the same center. The student can develop those activities through a virtual Platform (ALF), where the university community can exchange information, material, documents, etc. More than 1,400 public employees make the operation of the University possible and provide the necessary support for teaching and research staff to carry out their work under the most optimal conditions.
Printed, audiovisual and multimedia materials: Printed materials (texts and study guides) specially designed for autonomous learning, and a very wide range of audiovisual and multimedia materials developed by UNED (videos, CDs, DVDs). Audiovisual Media like radio, educational television and the UNED Channel (online radio and TV - ). UNED students are integrated into a broader virtual community where they have access to various online services that respond to their needs (e.g., virtual courses, virtual study communities and virtual library and administrative department). Each course has its own virtual domain with activities, supplementary materials, self-assessment tools, and chats and forums, allowing students to communicate with teaching staff, tutors and classmates. Students can also join online work and study communities formed by classmates at any Center.
Carrying out the in-person exams at the Associated Centers: Examinations are written by teaching teams at the Faculties and distributed to all Associated Centers by virtual pouch. All conducted examinations are returned to the corresponding teaching teams for evaluation.

Advantages

A number of factors have been cited to justify the public prestige of UNED:^[6]

All of UNED exams are supervised
Exams must encompass the entirety of the program
Students are objectively graded based on a strictly uniform test
Distance learning requires additional self-teaching effort and discipline, highly regarded by employers
Students from UNED are more likely to continue their education and research after graduation day, applying the self-teaching methodologies learned during their studies

The university maintains an excellent standard of higher education: in the last 30 years, it has awarded almost 2,000 PhD degrees.^[7]

Its international prestige is also illustrated by the fact that, since 1997, UNED has held the UNESCO chair in distance education which promotes research, development and documentation in the field of distance education.

Organisation

Undergraduate

Today, UNED comprises 11 faculties and the following bachelor´s degree studies:^[8]

Higher Technical School of Computer Engineering at UNED: Bachelor´s Degree in Computer Engineering, Bachelor´s Degree in Engineering Information Technology
College of Industrial Engineering: Bachelor´s Degree in Electrical Engineering, Bachelor´s Degree in Industrial Technologies Engineering, Bachelor´s Degree in Mechanical Engineering, Bachelor´s Degree in Engineering in Industrial Electronics and Automation
Faculty of Sciences: Bachelor´s Degree in Environmental Science, Bachelor´s Degree in Physics, Bachelor´s Degree in Mathematics, Bachelor´s Degree in Chemistry
Faculty of Economics and Business Administration: Bachelor´s Degree in Economics, Bachelor´s Degree in Business Administration and Management, Bachelor´s Degree in Tourism
Faculty of Political Science and Sociology: Bachelor´s Degree in Sociology, Bachelor´s Degree in Political Science & Public Administration
Faculty of Law: Bachelor´s Degree in Law, Bachelor´s Degree in Social Work, Bachelor´s Degree in Juridical Science of Public Administration
Faculty of Education: Bachelor´s Degree in Social Education, Bachelor´s Degree in Pedagogy
Faculty of Philology: Bachelor´s Degree in Spanish Language and Literature, Bachelor´s Degree in English Studies: Language, Literature and Culture
Faculty of Philosophy: Bachelor´s Degree in Philosophy, Bachelor´s Degree in Social and Cultural Anthropology
Faculty of Geography and History: Bachelor´s Degree in Geography and History, Bachelor´s Degree in Art History
Faculty of Psychology: Bachelor´s Degree in Psychology

Postgraduate

Higher Technical School of Computer Engineering at UNED:^[9] Computer Systems and Languages,Advanced Artificial Intelligence: Principles, Methods and Applications, Communication, Networks and Content Management,Systems and Control Engineering
College of Industrial Engineering: Research in Industrial Technology, Research in Electrical, Electronic and Industrial Control Engineering, Advanced Manufacturing Engineering, Design Engineering
Faculty of Sciences: Chemical Science and Technology, Polymer Science and Technology, Advanced Mathematics, Medical Physics, Physics of Complex Systems
Faculty of Economics and Business Administration: Corporate Sustainability and Social, Responsibility
Faculty of Political Science and Sociology, Social Problems, Politics and Democracy,
Faculty of Law: Government Intervention in Society, European Union, Fundamental Rights, Security, Insurance Law, Human Rights, Public Management, Public Finance, Public Policy and Taxation
Faculty of Education Educational Treatment of Diversity, Communication and Education on the Internet: From the Information Society to the Knowledge Society, Innovation and Research in Education, Training of E.S.O., Bachillerato, F.P. and Language Secondary Teachers, Strategies and Technologies for the Teaching Function in the Multicultural Society
Faculty of Philology Literary and Theatre Training and Research in the European Context, The Classical World and its Influence on Western Culture, Applied English Linguistics, Hispanic Literatures (Catalan, Galician and Basque) in the European Context, Language Science and Hispanic Linguistics, Grammatical and Stylistic Analysis of Spanish, Dictionary Development and Quality Control of the Spanish Lexicon, French and Francophone Studies, Information Technologies and Communication in Language Education and Processing
Faculty of Philosophy :Theoretical and Practical Philosophy
Faculty of Geography and History : Advanced Methods and Techniques of Historical, Artistic and Geographic Research, Contemporary Spain in the International Context
Faculty of Psychology :Methodology of Behavioral Sciences and Health, Research in Psychology, Psychological Intervention in Development and Education

People

Notable current and former academics

Notable alumni

Hans Küng becoming Doctor Honoris Causa of the UNED in 2011

Honorary doctors

1985-1990	1991-2000	2001-2010	2011–present
Ilya Prigogine (1985) José Ferrater Mora (1986) Alan Roy Katritzky (1986) Hermann Haken (1987) Rafael Lapesa (1987) Paul Anthony Samuelson (1989) Merton H. Miller (1990)	Jordi Solé Tura (1991) Miquel Roca I Junyent (1991) José Pedro Pérez-Llorca (1991) Gregorio Peces-Barba (1991) Miguel Herrero y Rodríguez de Miñón (1991) Manuel Fraga Iribarne (1991) Gabriel Cisneros (1991) Max Kaser (1992) Mario Talamanca (1992) Miquel Batllori i Munné (1993) Manuel Alvar López (1993) Adolfo Sánchez Vázquez (1993) Bernard Pottier (1993) Kenneth S.W. Sing (1996) José Luis Pinillos Díaz (1996) Hermann Mosler (1996) Jay Seth Rosenblatt (1997) Derek Ernest Blackman (1997) Francisco Ayala y García-Duarte (1997) Manuel Royes I Vila (1998) Emilio Alarcos Llorach (1998) José María Álvarez del Manzano (1998) Manuel Lora-Tamayo (1998) Carlos Fuentes Macías (2000) Karl Johan Åström (2000) Philip N. Johnson-Laird (2000)	Rafael Canogar (2001) Daniel E. Rosner (2002) Fernando Reinoso Suárez (2002) Antonio Béthencourt Massieu (2003) Mozart Víctor Russomano (2003) Jean Rouverol (2003) Marye Anne Fox (2003) Salustiano del Campo Urbano (2005) Marc Barbut (2005) Gianni Vattimo (2006) Susan George (2007) Ulrich Beck (2007) Juan Velarde Fuentes (2007) Manuel Varela Parache (2007) Enrique Fuentes Quintana (2007) Avelino Corma Canós (2008) María Cascales Angosto (2008) Juan Bechmans Vallet de Goytisolo (2009) Helio Carpintero (2009) Ramón Bayes Sopena (2009) Humberto López Morales (2010) Jean Haritschelhar (2010) Antoni Mª Badia i Margarit (2010) Xesús Alonso Montero (2010) Federico Mayor Zaragoza (2010) Ricardo Diez Hochleitner (2010)	Hans Küng (2011) Santiago Grisolía García (2011) Margarita Salas (2011) Merton H. Miller (2011) Juan Díez Nicolás (2012) Victorio Valle Sánchez (2013) José Manuel Caballero Bonald (2013) Eduard H. Hovy (2013)

References

Universities in Spain

Andalusia	Almería Cádiz Córdoba Granada Huelva Jaén Malaga Seville International University of Andalucía Pablo de Olavide Loyola Andalucía

Aragon	Zaragoza San Jorge

Asturias	Oviedo

Balearic Islands	University of the Balearic Islands

Basque Country	Deusto University of the Basque Country Mondragon

Canary Islands	La Laguna Las Palmas de Gran Canaria European University of Canarias Fernando Pessoa-Canarias

Cantabria	University of Cantabria European University of the Atlantic

Castilla–La Mancha	University of Castilla–La Mancha

Castile and León	Burgos León Salamanca Valladolid Catholic University of Ávila IE University Isabel I University Miguel de Cervantes European University Pontifical University of Salamanca

Catalonia	Barcelona Girona Lleida Abat Oliba CEU Autonomous University of Barcelona International University of Catalonia Open University of Catalonia Polytechnic University of Catalonia Pompeu Fabra Ramon Llull Rovira i Virgili Vic

Extremadura	University of Extremadura

Galicia	A Coruña Santiago de Compostela Vigo

La Rioja	University of La Rioja International University of La Rioja

Madrid	Alcalá Autonomous University of Madrid Carlos III Complutense Menéndez Pelayo International University UNED King Juan Carlos Technical University of Madrid Antonio de Nebrija Camilo José Cela CEU San Pablo European University of Madrid Francisco de Vitoria Comillas San Dámaso Universidad a Distancia de Madrid

Murcia	University of Murcia San Antonio Technical University of Cartagena

Navarre	University of Navarra Universidad Pública de Navarra

Valencian Community	Alicante Jaume I Miguel Hernández Technical University of Valencia Valencia San Vicente Mártir CEU Cardenal Herrera Valencian International University European University of Valencia

Authority control	WorldCat Identities VIAF: 139305937 LCCN: n79032065 ISNI: 0000 0001 2308 8920 GND: 14803-9 SUDOC: 02656582X BNF: cb11878912j (data) NLA: 35682984 NKC: ko2009480285 BNE: XX112082

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