UNA was founded in 1973: a public higher education institution, with campuses in the province of Heredia, Liberia and Pérez Zeledón, formerly the Teacher Training Colleges of Costa Rica.
It was created in response to the need to consolidate a public higher education system, aimed at strengthening humanistic vision, artistic creation, the generation of technology, applied knowledge and human capital, under the concept of “UNA: the Necessary University”.

“The Universidad Necesaria is a living entity. It is rooted in history as a response to the development needs of a people, and it grows with the history of that people."
Rev. Benjamin Núñez V
First Rector of the UNA

Dr. Rafael Ángel Ledezma Díaz, director of the UNA School of History, gives a brief summary of the origins of this distinguished institution for the UNA Campus newspaper:  
 

On February 12, 1973, through Law No. 5182, the Legislative Assembly approved the creation of the National University (UNA). The bill that culminated in that law had been proposed by legislators Daniel Oduber Quirós and Francisco Morales.
 
On February 15th of that same year, the President of the Republic, José Figueres Ferrer, and the Minister of Education, Uladislao Gómez Solano, sanctioned the aforementioned law, which was published on February 22nd in La Gaceta. 

Finally, on March 14th the new university was inaugurated in a public ceremony in Heredia presided over by the first rector, Mr. Benjamín Núñez. It is worth remembering that the UNA was founded on the basis of the former Escuela Normal de Costa Rica. This institution was founded in 1915 for the training of primary school teachers. Then, in 1968, the Escuela Normal Superior was created, with the objective of providing pedagogical training for secondary education. This school ended its existence shortly before the creation of the UNA. This is how the so-called “necessary university” emerged into the national life of a country that, in the midst of the Cold War and faced with the threat of a global economic slowdown, was betting on a social-democratic and benefactor model of development.

In 1973, for example, the student population enrolled was 4,500. Then, in 1986 it rose to 8,600 and in 2022 there were 19,200 students registered. In turn, the number of faculties and academic units also grew over time. Between 1974 and 1977, the UNA was made up of six faculties which, together, made up 23 schools. In those years, it only had three regional sections that had previously been the teacher training colleges of Pérez Zeledón, San Ramón and Liberia. 
In the speech given by Don Benjamín Núñez at the inauguration of the UNA in March 1973, he vehemently affirmed that the new institution would dedicate itself to the analysis of national realities in order to seek “effective and democratic” solutions. It is clear that, during the decades following that speech, the UNA assumed this commitment, being aware of the political implications and social complexities that Costa Rica has experienced in light of the ecological, economic and cultural challenges arising from the current process of globalization. In this sense, research and extension work have been fundamental. These areas have also developed considerably over time. 

In 1975 there were only four research projects in progress. By 1979 that number had increased to 128. Between 2015 and 2020, nearly 1,382 research and extension initiatives and actions were reported among programs, projects, and academic activities (PPAA). Some of the topics dealt with in the PPAA with regional impact and which were promoted by the same regional headquarters have been the environment, employment, education, art and culture.

UNA currently has eight faculties and centers for a total of 32 schools and 13 institutes, as well as eight university campuses distributed among the Central, Huetar Atlántica, Huerta Norte, Brunca, Chorotega and Pacífico Central regions. Thanks to all the administrative and academic efforts that were made to make it grow, today the university offers Costa Rican society a robust and varied range of degree courses, many of them accredited under high quality standards. 

In the more than 50 years since its inauguration, the UNA continues to make its contribution to Costa Rican higher education through values, missions and aims that reaffirm its social vocation, namely: equity, democratic participation, social commitment and transformation, dialogue of knowledge, interdisciplinarity, regionalization, critical thinking, human well-being, comprehensive education, natural and cultural sustainability, among others. These tasks are undertaken through intellectual production, research, teaching and social outreach. Over the course of five decades, the number of enrolled students has increased considerably. 

Source: 

BBarrantes V. (March 6, 2023). La Universidad Nacional: 50 años de aportes sociales y académicos. UNA Comunica. https://www.unacomunica.una.ac.cr/index.php/marzo-2023/4451-la-universidad-nacional-50-anos-de-aportes-sociales-y-academicos