Students, professors, staff fear impact of Milei veto on university funding bill

Students, professors and employees from Argentina's state universities are calling on the government to resist striking down a law that improves the educational budget but clashes with President Javier Milei’s zero fiscal deficit policy.

Five Nobel prize recipients, presidents and leaders in science and the arts are warning that state universities, the pride of Argentines, are in danger of being deteriorated by the fierce cutbacks. 

The law, approved by Congress last September 13, establishes an increase in the budget for universities, including salaries, to counter inflation (which was 236 percent year-to-year in August). 

Its fiscal impact would be 0.14 percent of gross domestic product, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

Given the threat of a veto from President Milei, university students, staff and supporters of free higher education have announced a march for October 2, similar to a previous mass demonstration on April 23, after which the government conceded and moved to boost the budget.

The Human Capital Ministry claimed last week that “there is dialogue and compromise,” though representatives from the universities questioned those remarks.

Argentina’s system of 66 state universities accounts for 80 percent of enrolment in the country, or some 2.1 million students.

‘An investment’

Student Ornella Sol Fritzler, aged 27, is one step away from graduating as a dentist.

“We have large expenses on instruments and we struggle to buy disposable materials. The school provides all it can, but we always have to rely on credit cards to pay for expenses to continue with our degree,” she said during a break from seeing patients at the Universidad de Buenos Aires’ dental school.

This year there was a disruption in the delivery of a kit of supplies for practices.

“The financial aid given to us by the school in instruments was interrupted because they had to spend money paying the electricity and gas bills, and other maintenance expenses” at the 17-storey tower where students see patients in central Buenos Aires.

Fritzler said she feels “afraid” that Milei’s adjustment will end up excluding students who cannot afford to pay for materials.

She also differs with the president when he refers to the education budget as an expense. “I’m the first university student in my family and I’m convinced I’m an investment,” she said with a smile.

‘Acquired right’

Jorge Aredes is 48 years old and has been teaching at the Faculty of Dentistry for 25 of them.

“What this school sustains is commitment ... which does not mean that the work should not be properly compensated,” he said.

In his opinion, without a university financing law, “it will be very complex to maintain the entire structure and services.”

Though he preferred not to reveal his salary, Aredes said that “historically,” wages have been low.

Despite that, he refuses to move into the private sector.  “There’s a question of belonging and giving back to society what it has given to us. No professor is thinking about leaving UBA,” he claimed.

“State universities are an earned asset for society, an acquired right, an engine for upward social mobility,” he added.

‘Only way out’

Rafael Fernández is 59 years old and has been working at the faculty’s reception for 28. If Milei’s veto prospers, he will lose the chance for his wages to regain pace against inflation, which has accumulated nearly 95 percent over the first eight months of the year.

“The hardest blow was in December,” Rafael said, noting the more than 50-percent devaluation introduced soon after Milei was inaugurated.

“Initially, the blow comes when you go shopping, go out or pay for secondary expenses. But in expenses, you cannot avoid there has been even higher inflation,” he stated.

He refers to transport and electricity and gas rates, which have multiplied two and threefold due to increases and elimination of subsidies. 

“And you have to pay for it with the same income,” stressed Fernández.

If the veto prospers “it would be almost impossible to continue living on this job and keeping a normal life,” he said, fearing operational issues at the university moving forward.

“If we lose state education, we will degrade the quality of the fundamental tool work has which are people. It’s the only way out,” he said.