By Mauricio Caminos on June 25, 2025
In Defense of Public Universities
The university sector is reigniting its conflict with the Argentine government this week over the lack of salary increases, budget cuts, and insufficient support for students. In a deteriorating situation, with some 10,000 teachers having left their posts since Javier Milei took office, university rectors and teaching and non-teaching unions are planning a series of actions to protest against the Casa Rosada’s austerity measures. There will be a 48-hour strike on Thursday and Friday, a march to the headquarters of the Ministry of Education, and the collection of signatures to push for a new budget law for higher education institutions, which the president vetoed last year.
This morning, the National Interuniversity Council (CIN) led a conference together with some of the unions and representatives to publicly expose their serious situation. For next week, the opposition in the Chamber of Deputies has called for a special session to promote a new University Financing Law. Faced with Milei’s threat to veto the law again, the bill focuses on reallocating taxes so that it does not impact the libertarian zero deficit rule, establishes an increase in collective bargaining agreements, and more resources for student scholarships.
“We are in a pressing situation. Our university’s present speaks to what we want as a country,” denounced CIN head Oscar Alpa, rector of the National University of La Pampa, on Monday. Today, a new teacher’s salary is barely $178,000, and the Progresar scholarship is frozen at $35,000. According to official data, 10,000 teachers have already left public universities because young people are not attracted to teaching and older teachers are retiring.
Although there is talk of a third federal march, in reality there will be decentralized rallies in the coming days. On the 26th, there will be a symbolic embrace at the Hospital de Clínicas in the University of Buenos Aires, and protests are expected in Córdoba and Neuquén. In the afternoon, grassroots unions will hold a rally in front of the Pizzurno Palace with a torchlight march, as part of the 48-hour strike.
The National Federation of University Teachers, Researchers, and Creators (CONADU Histórica) announced the plan of action in response to the lack of response from the government, which continues to postpone collective bargaining. The slogan is “Join the fight to defend public universities!” and seeks to generate public impact on the new University Financing Law.
“This project is essential to guarantee the sustainability and development of the Argentine public university system, and for this reason, we call on the entire educational community and society as a whole to join and support this collective demand in defense of free, inclusive, and quality public universities,” CONADU said in a statement.
Salary variation in the university sector is on the decline. CIN
More combative union sectors question the CIN’s actions because they believe that the increase should be greater. “The Milei plan is working 100%: the university is being emptied, with no money for students or teachers, and research and public works funds are zero. If it is really impossible to pay for electricity or gas, they should stop paying those bills and wait for all the service providers to cut off services. Let there be serious chaos,” a union leader from Conadu Histórica told elDiarioAR.
A student source familiar with the situation said that the radical wing of the sector, including both rectors and student groups, said there is no desire to organize a large federal march, like the two that took place in 2024, because “they are looking more to the October elections than to doing something now in the streets.”
The opposition’s bill to increase university funding calls for 1% of GDP to be allocated to these institutions. It also demands the convening of joint negotiations to compensate for the differences between the increases granted and inflation in December 2023, and the establishment of a schedule of increases in line with the price increases established by the Indec.
A “super session” is expected on Wednesday, July 2, because deputies will also seek to move forward with a reform of the DNU law and the declaration of emergency at the Garrahan hospital. These are all points rejected by the ruling party, in addition to generating constant tension in the streets.
The conference at the CIN on Monday. NA
Source: El Diario Ar translation Resumen Latinoamericano – English