Thousands of students and lecturers took to the streets of Buenos Aires and several other cities across the country on Thursday to demand that President Javier Milei’s government immediately comply with a law updating funding for public universities.
The ‘Marcha Federal’ demonstration – the fifth of the Milei administration’s time in office – follows numerous strikes, protests on university campuses and court rulings ordering the government to implement the so-called University Funding Law, which has been ratified five times by Congress.
The legislation provides for inflation-linked salary adjustments for lecturers dating back to December 2023, as well as the restoration of student grants and funding for university operations.
University funding fell by 40.5 percent in real terms in the first half of this year compared with the same period in 2023, according to a study by the National Economic Research Centre at the University of Buenos Aires (UBA).
By midday, thousands of people had gathered near Congress in Buenos Aires, carrying banners from student associations and lecturers’ unions bearing slogans such as “Milei, comply with the law” and “Public universities are a right, not a privilege.”
“We are demanding that they pay us what they owe us,” said Francisca Staiti, general secretary of the lecturers’ union Conadu Histórica.
She said budget restrictions had forced lecturers to take on multiple jobs or resign from their university posts.
In comments to local media, the AGD-UBA teaching staff union at the university said that the government has accumulated a 32 percent salary debt to university lecturers, despite a local court imposing a financial penalty on the administration on Wednesday for its systematic failure to comply with the legislation.
“Our benchmark post, that of a junior lecturer on a semi-exclusive contract, received a gross basic salary of 561,659 pesos [around US$370 at the official exchange rate) in October, when under the University Funding Law they should have received 741,111 pesos (around US$490),” said Laura Carboni, AGD-UBA’s general secretary.
“The level of wage strangulation being imposed on us has reached an unsustainable limit. We are owed a 32 percent pay rise established by law, and the loss of purchasing power is destroying the incomes of thousands of lecturers who keep public university classrooms and laboratories running every day,” she added.
Bill, law, veto…
The University Funding Law was passed by Argentina’s Congress in August 2025 but later vetoed by Milei. The legislature subsequently overrode the veto in October that year, but the Executive branch has never signed the bill into law.
Since then, several court rulings – including a high-profile Supreme Court decision in June – have ordered the government to make the payments required under the legislation.
Presidential spokesman Adrián Ravier said on Tuesday that “it is not true that the law is not being complied with,” arguing instead that its implementation was “suspended” while the government pursued legal action.
The Milei administration argues that the legislation does not specify how the necessary funding should be provided and therefore breaches its desire to sustain fiscal balance.
Thursday’s demonstration is the fifth nationwide ‘federal march’ since Milei took office in December 2023.
His government has increased university budget allocations since coming to power, but universities say the rises have been insufficient.
Unions back demand
The federal march has drawn support from opposition political parties, trade unions, social organisations and pensioners.
Among those demonstrating Thursday were members of the Central de Trabajadores de la Argentina (Argentine Workers’ Central, CTA) and Asociación de Trabajadores del Estado (State Workers’ Association, ATE), as well as representatives from the CGT umbrella union grouping, Argentina’s largest.
“We are marching on Congress for education, sovereignty and democracy. Different groups and sectors of our society that have been targeted by the austerity and destruction policies pursued by Javier Milei’s administration will come together in Congress Square,” said the workers’ arm of the CTA in a statement.
Demonstrators from the La Cámpora youth movement, associated with Kirchnerism, and the nation’s main left-wing grouping, the Frente de Izquierda y de los Trabajadores-Unidad (FIT-U), among others, also joined the rally.
Public universities are “a historic achievement of the Argentine people” and an “indispensable” instrument for developing a sovereign nation with equal opportunities, upward social mobility and decent work, said the CGT in a statement issued before the rally.
“We are marching alongside the education community because public universities are an unquestionable right in building a future of dignity and opportunities for everyone,” it said via social media.
The groups also called on supporters to march on Congress to demand the repeal of a sweeping decree issued by Milei which, among other measures, removes restrictions on the sale of rural land to foreign buyers.
State-workers strike
ATE union leader Rodolfo Aguiar confirmed that state employees had staged a 24-hour strike on the day of the march.
He said a walkout was needed to ensure protests spread throughout the country.
“We have to go all the way and be capable of bringing down this entire decree, because it is not aimed at the establishment – it is aimed at us, so the establishment can make a fortune,” Aguiar said.
“This decree has become a delivery service for corporations, and we cannot allow them to keep governing our country with a single signature. When they cannot get something through the votes, they issue a decree,” he added.
The main demands of Thursday’s rally are the “effective and immediate” implementation of the University Funding Law, salary increases for lecturers, higher student grants and increased university budgets.
Recent economic data highlights the financial pressures facing university staff. Following the publication of September’s inflation rate of 1.9 percent, cumulative inflation since the Milei administration took office has reached a cumulative 344.15 percent, while lecturers’ salaries rose by just 236.6 percent over the same period. The gap represents a direct loss of purchasing power.
Carboni claims the ongoing crisis is part of a deliberate attempt by the Milei administration to hollow out state universities.
“We are not dealing with an isolated incident, but with a deliberate plan to hollow out public universities. The mass exodus of more than 1,200 lecturers and researchers from UBA shows that, without decent salaries, there can be no continuity in scientific research or quality teaching in our country,” she concluded.
– TIMES/AFP/NA/PERFIL
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