THE HISTORICAL INCEPTION OF A COMPLEX PUBLIC DISTANCE UNIVERSITY: UNED IN SPAIN

UNED in Spain was the founding entity of the American Association of Higher Distance Education (AIESAD). Similarly, in UNED the scientific journal of the AIESAD, RIED. Revista Iberoamericana de Educacion a Distancia , was born. Thus, given the importance of UNED as the ‘mother’ of RIED, we have researched into the eventful inception of one of the largest distance universities in the world: how did the initial idea for UNED come about and what were the first steps taken to start its teaching activity in January 1973?