The Distance State University (UNED), (in Spanish, Universidad Estatal a Distancia, abbreviated UNED) is one of the five public universities in the Republic of Costa Rica, in Central America. It is located in Sabanilla, Montes de Oca, distance mode study. UNED is the second university in number of students; and it is the largest coverage in the country. It also has its own publishing house that produces a variety of both textbooks that cover most of the needs of the university, as essayistic works, research, etc. This institution was created in 1977 and its first president was Don Francisco Antonio Pacheco Fernandez.