Huge crowds of protesters marched in cities across Argentina on Tuesday, including the capital Buenos Aires, Cordoba, Mendoza and Tucumán.
Protesters called on the government of liberal President Xavier Miley to enforce university funding laws at the center of a long political standoff.
In Buenos Aires, the march ended at the Plaza de Mayo, where the presidential palace is located, and spread into the surrounding streets.
Organizers estimated that about 600,000 students, university staff, union members and opposition supporters joined the protests in the capital, while 1.5 million people took part across the country.
“It’s very clear that this government is determined to defund public education,” Sol Muniz, a 24-year-old law student at the University of Buenos Aires, told The Associated Press in March.
“The university is a source of pride for us. It’s the best thing we have.”
“I’m here to defend public education,” Renata Lopez, an 18-year-old literature student, told AFP news agency. He had a copy of Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, a novel that depicts a future dystopian society that has outlawed books.
“The novel speaks to our current reality,” Lopez said. “The denigration of education is not unique, it is not a dystopian thing. It is something that is happening.”
What are the protests over Argentina’s university funding about?
Congress approved two laws, one in 2024 and one in 2025, to fund the operating costs of public universities and raise teacher salaries in line with higher inflation.
But Miley later vetoed the legislation, arguing that it contradicted her government’s fiscal policy.
Parliament then overturned Miley’s veto but his government still refused to enforce the laws.
In seeking to repeal the law, Miley’s administration argues that it fails to specify how the state would supply the mandated funding increase at a time of severe fiscal austerity.
The matter is expected to go to the Supreme Court.
Like US President Donald Trump, Miley’s powerful supporter and ally, the Argentinian president regularly attacks university campuses as bastions of “woke” ideology.
University budgets were cut under Miley
Public university budgets have been cut by 40% since Miley took office in 2023.
They are projected to fall from 0.7% of GDP in 2023 to just above 0.4% this year, according to a report by the Argentina-based Ibero-American Center for Research in Science, Technology and Innovation (or CIICTI).
This is the lowest level since 1989.
According to the Chief Teachers Union, university professors’ salaries have fallen by about 33% after taking into account inflation.
Ricardo Gelpi, rector of the University of Buenos Aires, said low salaries have prompted at least 580 research professors in engineering and science departments to leave the public system for private universities or other better-paying jobs.
Argentina is proud of its university education for all
Argentina has approximately 60 public universities, which have been tuition-free since 1949.
According to Marcelo Rabosi, a higher education policy professor at Torquato de Tella University in Buenos Aires, the lack of tuition fees means universities are dependent on government funding, which provides about 80% to 90% of universities’ total income.
“Public universities in Argentina are more than just educational institutions – they are symbols of social mobility and national pride,” Rabosi told the World of Higher Education podcast late last year..
Edited by: Zack Crellin