Gloom and uncertainty, Argentine universities tremble in the ‘Milei era’

The lights do not work on any floor of the headquarters of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Buenos Aires (UBA), one of the most prestigious in Latin America and on which a wide network of hospitals and clinics who care for tens of thousands of patients.

In the heart of Buenos Aires, this often bustling architectural mass now has a darker color and inside looks like a darkened labyrinth.

According to the university, the reason for this appearance – aggravated during the last two weeks – is the austerity policy that the Government of the ultra-liberal Javier Milei is undertaking, against which unions, politicians and members of civil society will demonstrate this Tuesday in a massive march.

“The university is going through a critical budget situation, both in the case of students and teachers. (…) In these weeks, (the problem) has become so critical that it has led us to declare a ‘budgetary and economic emergency’”the director of the Common Basic Cycle and senior advisor of the UBA, Felipe Vega, assures EFE.

According to Vega, the crisis also affects the expenses of the six university hospitals in Buenos Aires, a group of centers that serve tens of thousands of patients and are leaders in areas such as dentistry or veterinary medicine.

“There are very high levels of paralysis in what has to do with research and laboratories (…) there is a shortage of purchases of supplies, reagents or health equipment,” says Vega.

In this framework, the students of many faculties in the country became accustomed to receiving classes on sidewalks or in squares.

A situation reminiscent of the revolts that occurred at the end of the 1960s, with their epicenter in distant Paris, but which resonated in Argentina during the so-called ‘Cordobazo’ of 1969, when students and workers joined forces to weaken the military dictatorship of that time (1966-1973).

The scenario is totally different now. Milei’s positions on public universities – free, even for foreigners – are one more drop in the cascade of messages that the president spreads on social networks.

The president and his unofficial media speakers, to whom Milei gives visibility from his official profile on X, have extended speeches against the “indoctrinating lefties” of public universities.

In some cases, the “cultural battle” for the universities has reached the physical level, with threats of boxing matches or video game games between the vice-rector of the UBA, Emiliano Yacobitti, and the presidential spokesperson, Manuel Adorni.

Beyond bravado, the students’ discontent with the libertarian Executive has spread to private universities in the country, such as the Universidad Argentina de la Empresa (UADE) or the Universidad Torcuato Di Tella, which will also participate in the march for public education.

But the alarm situation is not limited to the Argentine capital; In universities in the north and south of the country, where special transportation services operate due to adverse geographical conditions, nervousness also spreads about what will happen in the coming months.

Students like Carla, who is in her third year of Dentistry at the UBA, do not take a dim view of the president’s policies and believe that “There was a lack of control throughout these years.”

Others like Federico, in the second year of Medicine, understand the demands, but believe that the power outages and constant political interruptions during classes are harming their learning.

“I guess that’s what we have to do if we want the UBA to move forward,” he resigns. The situation even affects foreigners who study part of their studies in Argentina.

For Albert, a Spaniard who is studying part of his studies at the National University of San Martín (Unsam), uncertainty is “minor”, because you believe that “Argentines tend to put themselves in the worst case.”

“It is true that, from the offices for foreign students, they have told us that UNSAM could run out of budgets in the short term, but what we already have enrolled could be studied in another faculty in the network”Explain.