Argentina: UBA declares budget emergency – 04/15/2024 – World

The most prestigious educational institution in Argentina and widely sought after by Brazilians, the University of Buenos Aires declared a budgetary emergency. The leadership of the UBA, as it is known, is on a collision course with the Milei government.

The institution’s University Council stated last week that there is a risk of defunding the university, “compromising its essential functions, such as university education, scientific research and health care for more than half a million patients”.

The key point of the imbroglio is the fact that President Javier Milei ordered the extension of the budget in force in 2023 to this year 2024, without adjustments or any increases. Inflation in the last 12 months in Argentina is 287.9%, according to the latest data.

Milei did so through a mega-decree — the so-called DNU package — which has already been rejected by the local Senate but still awaits analysis by the Chamber, where it can be approved and thus remain in force.

In practice, the budget foreseen for the UBA, of 130 billion Argentine pesos in 2023, was maintained for this 2024. It turns out that, with exorbitant inflation in the country, correcting this value would require that for the current year it, at least, be tripled, which did not happen.

“With this policy they decided to close the UBA”, rector Ricardo Gelpi told La Nacion a few days ago.

“In two or three months, if the economic part is not updated, we will not be able to function. I think there is a lack of knowledge of how the UBA works. It cannot be denied that in Argentina there are things that are not working, but the UBA is not involved in that .”

Last March, when a strike led higher education institutions to fold their arms in response to budget demands, the Ministry of Human Capital, where the Department of Education is located, announced a 70% increase, but not in the general budget of the higher education, but in operating expenses.

The UBA University Council says that, in the end, the cut in its budget in real terms, from one year to the next, was 80%. “For every 10 pesos that UBA had in March 2023, today it only has 2”, said the university’s highest authority.

Over the last few weeks, the scenario has led to repeated mobilizations of students and teachers, who promote “hugs” in university buildings and distribute licks on the walls of institutions in a critical tone towards Milei.

The UBA itself declared that it will join a university march called for the 23rd in Praça de Mayo, whose main demand is precisely the increase in the education budget.

A recent study by the NGO Civil Association for Equal Justice based on public data made available by the government shows that, if there is no update, this year’s budget will be the lowest for the development of higher education in 26 years.

Still according to the survey with values ​​already adjusted for inflation, for 2024 the amount allocated for this purpose is 72% lower than that allocated in the previous year. This entire scenario amplified the feud between Milei and the top brass of some institutions such as the UBA, with exchanges of barbs in interviews and social media.

This Monday (15), for example, the ultraliberal president made several publications on X criticizing what he calls “indoctrination” at UBA and sharing posters at the university criticizing him. “They deny indoctrination and persecution but are enemies of the ideas of freedom,” he wrote in one of them. “There is diversity, yes, except when you have the terrible idea of ​​wanting to be liberal.”

The issue of what Milei calls “indoctrination” in the education system has been gaining weight in the country. Just over a week ago, the government announced that it is preparing changes to the Education Law to prevent this practice and to create reporting channels, so that parents and students can speak out when they feel that their “freedom is not respected”.