\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t The Human Capital Ministry questioned spending by public universities in an attempt to rebut claims that the government is defunding higher education, as students, professors and university staff prepare to march on Tuesday afternoon demanding that the national administration comply with a law granting universities additional funding.<\/p>\n
On Monday, Human Capital Minister Sandra Pettovello and University Policies Undersecretary Alejandro \u00c1lvarez \u2014 who rarely give press conferences \u2014 spoke to reporters in order to give their point of view ahead of the protest, expected to be massive.<\/p>\n
The officials stated that while they are \u201cnot against any university,\u201d they want to show the public \u201chow the money is spent.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s our spirit, nothing else. Not going against the University of Buenos Aires (UBA), nor any other public university,\u201d Pettovello said during the meeting with journalists, which wasn\u2019t televised.<\/p>\n
You may also be interested in: Judiciary suspends implementation of university funding law<\/p>\n
The ministry also released a video in which \u00c1lvarez questions some of public universities\u2019 expenditures, especially targeting the UBA, Argentina\u2019s largest university, which has claimed the government did not make any payments corresponding to university hospitals this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe defend education. We want to demystify that sacred monster that people defend without knowing that things are happening that are not right,\u201d Pettovello stated, adding that the \u201ccultural battle\u201d is important for the government.<\/p>\n
\u201cA political march\u201d Pettovello and \u00c1lvarez said Tuesday\u2019s protest is being used for political gain, and they want to show data to the public \u201cso they can decide whether to support it without any political connotation.\u201d<\/p>\n
The protest \u2014 the fourth organized by the public university community since the libertarian government took office \u2014 seeks to pressure the administration to comply with the university funding law, which President Javier Milei has rejected on the grounds that it conflicts with his zero-deficit policy.<\/p>\n
Protesters argue that the government is ignoring a law that was not only approved by Congress but also upheld after President Javier Milei vetoed it. The administration, however, maintains that the university funding law became void once Congress passed the 2026 Budget, which officials say supersedes the earlier legislation.<\/p>\n
Pettovello and \u00c1lvarez said that \u201cthe only law\u201d they will comply with \u201cis the budget law\u201d and that while the demand for better salaries is \u201cgenuine,\u201d the march is \u201cstrongly influenced by politics.\u201d<\/p>\n
Criticisms In a video released on Monday, \u00c1lvarez questioned the idea that \u201cthe government is defunding universities\u201d, saying that the state spends AR$400 million (US$283,000) on each graduate from the National University of Arts, while it spends AR$57 million (US$40,000) on an average graduate from all public universities in the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom the start of our administration, fear has been spread by falsely affirming that universities will be shut down, but no one wonders why we have one of the lowest graduation rates in the region,\u201d \u00c1lvarez said. \u201cAlmost 40% of students don\u2019t even pass any classes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Argentina has some of the best-rated universities in the Americas, particularly public institutions. UBA was among the top 10 Latin American universities, according to the QS World University Rankings 2026.<\/p>\n
Seven Argentine universities, all public, were among the world\u2019s top 10% in the 2025 global Center for World University Rankings (CWUR), released in June of last year. However, most slid down the rankings since 2024 amid the current funding cuts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Human Capital Ministry questioned spending by public universities in an attempt to rebut claims that the government is defunding higher education, as students, professors and university staff prepare to march on Tuesday afternoon demanding that the national administration comply with a law granting universities additional funding. On Monday, Human Capital Minister Sandra Pettovello and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":62413,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59,13054,14071],"tags":[86,16176,14070],"class_list":["post-62412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-politics","category-sandra-pettovello","category-university-funding","tag-politics","tag-sandra-pettovello","tag-university-funding"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62412"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62412\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}