Jaime Montalvo Correa

Rector de la UNED

The UNED is a Spanish public university that provides distance education at a national and international level. It was founded in 1972 to provide priority access to university and further education for all those who, while capable of pursuing higher studies, were unable to attend on-campus classes for working, financial, residential or other similar reasons. At this moment it has a network of more than 60 study centres throughout the country where students have access to audiovisual teaching material, tutorial supervision and an ever-increasing use of new information and communications technologies

This university is the biggest in Spain with more than 190.000 students enrolled in its different modalities. The study offer includes degrees in Law, Geography and History, Philology, Philosophy, Economics and Business, Physics, Mathematics, Industrial Engineering, Chemistry, Political Sciences, Sociology and Computer Science, as well as PhD programmes, postgraduate programmes, a wide assortment of open courses with no entry requirements, Masters Degrees and distance-learning programmes that are updated every year.

The difference between the UNED and other universities lies in it’s geographic dimension (national and international), the use of distance methodology and complementary pedagogical tools (television, radio, video, computer-assisted learning and a virtual university campus). We have 1,100 full-time teaching staff, 4,700 tutors and 2,000 administrative staff to help make distance-learning possible at this university.

At the international level, the UNED has 15 centres in countries including the United States, Brazil, Argentina, Germany, Equatorial Guinea and Morocco. These Study Centres permit a fluent communication between the professors, students and the university’s headquarters in Madrid. Services to students include tutorial sessions, access to technologies and library, examination facilities, and teaching assessment and physical location for evaluation tests.

In recent years, UNED has become an active partner in the field of international cooperation. UNED is a founding member of the EADTU (European Association of Distance Teaching Universities) and holds the presidency of AIESAD (Ibero-American Association of Higher Distance Education). A major provider of technical assistance to higher education institutions in Latin America, UNED has started joint projects with the Organisation of America States, the Inter-American Development Bank, and participates in the Global Development Learning Network which is being promoted by the World Bank.

Jaime Montalvo Correa, Provost of the Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED), was born in Madrid in 1942. He graduated in Law (1964, Universidad Complutense) and got his PhD at the same university in 1969. He pursued post-doctoral studies at the Universities of Oxford and Bari. He has taught, as Professor of Labor Law, at the Universities of País Vasco (1972-76), Granada (1976-1979), Oviedo (1979-1982), and UNED (1982- present). Professor Montalvo has a strong background in the Spanish public administration: he was Director General of the Institute for Labor and Social Security Studies (1982-84), Director General of the National Institute of Public Administration (1984-1986), and Expert - Counsellor of the Social and Economic Council (CES) and Chairman of its Commission of Employment and Labor Relations. In the international sphere, Professor Montalvo served as Provost of the United Nations University for Peace (1990-1992). He was elected Provost of UNED in April 1999.