Suspension of scholarships for notes or equipment. Cuts in cleaning and security. Lack of toilet paper. Looking ahead to the 2024 school year, public universities implemented various measures to address the funding cut in which they were immersed due to having the same budget assigned as last year, in an inflationary context.
“If you go to the bathrooms, you realize it. In the cleaning, also; Before it was constant, there were three shifts. Or in the water drums: Before there was hot and cold water in each apartment; now, hopefully, there are three in the entire faculty. I guess they run out and don’t renew. “I know it is public, but sometimes we are here all day,” he said. Liliana Galarzathird-year kinesiology student at Hurlingham University. He further added that work stopped to build the laboratory.
The National Hurlingham Universitywhose rector is Jaime Perczyk, Former Minister of National Education in the administration of Alberto Fernández, was one of the first to report the impact of the budget restriction. They reported in February that they had to “rearrange the offer of commissions”, they postponed the registration period and each student will be able to register for a maximum of three subjects.
With year-on-year inflation of 287%, universities – like so many other areas of the State – must operate with the extended 2023 budget, given that the 2024 budget was never approved in Congress. The rectors of the national public universities have already reported that they do not have the funds to guarantee the normal functioning of the institutions. In some, even The students say that the version is circulating that classes will only be until May.
Of the items they receive each month, about 90% is allocated to the payment of salaries that are renegotiated through joint ventures. While the remaining 10% represents operating expenseswhich correspond to all the essentials to maintain basic issues – electricity, water, cleaning, maintenance and expenses from buying a computer to providing toilet paper – and remain frozen.
With the intention of reducing the effect of the strike called for last March 14, the Government announced a day before a 70% increase that would apply starting in March.
“When you analyze it today, becomes 58% annualized and not 70% because it is applied over ten months and not over 12″, he specified Felipe Vega Terradirector of the Common Basic Cycle of the University of Buenos Aires (UBA), to THE NATION.
“The situation is very worrying. Today we are operating with an emergency plan, basically at the expense of credits, committing payments for the future. The most critical thing is that while we are complaining, week by week it is getting worse. If the increases in public services are the transcendental ones, it is not enough for us, especially electricity“added the political scientist. He also pointed out that in the case of the UBA the impact is even greater in the hospitals that depend on the university because health inflation is higher.
In this context, the University of Buenos Aires called for a petition to be signed (rejecting the adjustment under the motto “Let’s take care of what works.” It will be presented to the authorities of the national Executive and Congress.
“The spirit is to raise the need to take care of something that works. We believe that the university is an asset and that we need to support it so that the country can improve. There are conversations with Torrendel [Carlos, secretario de Educación de la Nación]. You can see that he is receptive, but the decisions exceed him and we need concrete solutions,” concluded Vega Terra.
“In accordance with the guidelines established by the Ministry of Human Capital to seek transparency and efficient use of resources, the Undersecretary of University Policies works to put an end to discretionary transfers so that each university justifies its expenses in a reliable and documented manner. with verifiable objective indicators”, sources from the Ministry of Education limited themselves to answering the query of THE NATION.
Regarding whether there will be new increases for the university budget, there was no answer.
With this background, once again President Javier Milei once again targeted universities last week. “Unfortunately in Argentina, public education, because it is all public, it can be privately managed or state managed, has done a lot of damage by washing people’s brains and leading to the reading of authors who have been truly disastrous for the history of humanity and especially for Argentina,” he said on Tuesday at the International Economic Forum of the Americas.
At several universities, students agree that the impact will be seen next month because classes have just started. “The first year has not yet started, which is the most crowded. That’s where I think it’s going to be felt. There has never been the same role here, it ends and bye,” he commented to THE NATION Delfina, who was waiting on the steps of the UBA Faculty of Medicine to enter his fourth year.
“I think that by April, May, it will be felt. They talk about there being more virtuality” agreed Ariel Cellia, a third-year business administration student at the National University of San Martín (Unsam).
There, too, students said that the first impact of budget restrictions was seen in cleanliness. “It’s not as clean as other years. They have already warned that they are not going to provide toilet paper,” said Belén Malia, an engineering student. “The ‘microlab’ is closed; It is a laboratory that was previously at your disposal. And in the Tornavías building there are new classrooms, but they cannot be used because there are no benches”, he added.
“There is no paper for cleaning the laboratory counters, which is constant because we work with reagents; Before there was always. When the subject practices start, it will be noticed,” added María Victoria Buller, biotechnology student. She also pointed out that the next litters are more multitudinous. “We are 30, next time there will be 150. A single commission is not enough and we do not see that they are doing anything to change it,” she lamented.
Lara Hergenreder, a third-year political science student, mentioned that there were fewer hours when it came to registering. “They offered only three options. We sense that it has to do with the budget issue because other years it did not happen,” she said.
In other institutions, the announcements have already begun. “Two weeks ago they told us that the scholarships were going to start being cut. They gave us both a stethoscope and a blood pressure monitor.. Today both are 30,000 pesos. I understand that we are in a complicated situation, but it is not our fault, we want to study to be someone,” said Candela Cubila, a student studying nursing at the University of Hurlingham.
This is the study materials scholarship that the university has been awarding since 2016 and that provides the necessary materials for each of the majors: drawing kits for industrial design and scientific calculator for engineering, among others.
At the University of Hurlingham, two scholarships that were run with funds included in what are called “operating expenses” were cut, according to sources from the institution. Also, the notes scholarship, which financed the necessary photocopies.
Added to this panorama is the salary conflict. With an accumulated inflation from December to February of 71.33%, the Government’s proposal in the teacher parity for February was an update of 16%, six points above what the current parity indicated. For March they offered 12%, which was rejected by the National Universities Union Front.