FADE was founded to coordinate cooperation at a national level and to promote international cooperation, research work and training in areas of distance education. In the 1970's, instead of establishing a special institution, distance education was introduced into many existing higher educational institutions. FADE membership also includes companies and correspondence institutions. Distance education activities in Finnish universities are usually organised by the centres for continuing education which work as an integral part of the conventional universities.
All Finnish universities are state owned.
FADE has a special sector for cooperation of higher level distance education institutions with 10 member-institutions. These six universities have also joined the EuroStudyCentre Network. FADE's objectives are to promote the development of distance education, to encourage the research and development of methods and techniques used in distance education. The association functions as its members representative in relation to public authorities, councils and other institutions and organisations. FADE arranges meetings and conferences and supports contact between institutions at the national and international level to spread knowledge about Open Distance Learning.