Public universities’ students, professors and employees are carrying out their fifth march to demand a rise in funding and salaries for the sector, as President Javier Milei continues to refuse to implement a law that would grant what they are calling for.
The public universities’ funding law was approved in 2025, and although it has been enacted, the Milei administration has failed to put it into effect.
Protesters are marching in the main cities across the country on Thursday afternoon. In Buenos Aires City, they are gathering outside Congress, where opposition lawmakers aimed to defend a law that caps land purchases by foreigners that Milei had attempted to eliminate.
While the session fell through, those protesting against this issue also joined the universities’ march.
The first universities’ march took place in April 2024, just four months into Milei’s government, to protest severe funding cuts suffered by the sector. The community continued to march demanding more resources and against the national administration’s refusal to comply with the law.
The timeline of the law
Congress approved the public university funding law in August 2025. President Milei vetoed it days later on the grounds that it went against his zero-deficit goals.
The following month, both chambers of Congress rejected the veto, meaning the bill became law.
The government had no option but to enact the law, but it did so without allocating budgetary resources for its implementation.
It later suspended the law’s implementation through a new decree, stating that it could not take effect until the source of funding had been established — even though that information is already specified in the law.
The National Inter-University Council and several public universities filed a writ of protection asking the judiciary to declare Milei’s refusal to implement the enacted law unconstitutional and also demanded they at least implement the articles that would increase salaries and scholarships, which they considered most urgent. The law also includes sections aimed at rising operating expenses and resources.
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In December, federal judge Martín Cormick ordered the government to execute the articles of the law that would have allowed for an immediate rise in salaries and scholarships. After the libertarian administration’s appeal was rejected, the case reached the Supreme Court, which dismissed the government’s appeal in June and mandated compliance with the main points of the law.
In June, the Human Capital Ministry and universities agreed to a partial funding increase of 24% for salaries, and a September court order directed specific funds to public university UBA. However, unions and universities insist that the increase is insufficient to cover for the loss in purchasing power, and that implementing the law would fix the issue.
Last week, Judge Cormick ruled that it was unconstitutional for the Argentine government to refuse to comply with the law and ordered authorities to implement it. The government appealed, meaning the ruling will have to be analyzed by another court.
On Wednesday, Cormick ordered an AR$100,000 (US$65) fine to be paid by Chief of Staff Diego Santilli for each day that passes without the government implementing the law, given previous rulings were dismissed by authorities. Local media reported that the Milei administration will also appeal this decision.
How much are universities losing?
Salaries of those working in public universities and the national science, technology and innovation system are at some of their lowest in history, according to a report by the Economy, Politics and Science group at the Iberoamerican Center for Research in Technology, Science and Innovation (CIICTI).
The report showed that while inflation has accumulated a 344% increase between November 2023-September 2026, the salaries of university professors, researchers and employees have only gone up by 236%, meaning they are falling behind by 24% in real terms.
“In order to recover the purchasing power they had in November 2023, salaries in national universities should increase by 32%,” they said.
Consultant agency Zentrix challenged the government’s claim that there are no funds to cover the expenses that implementing the funding law would entail.
The firm stated in a report that the government’s 2027 budget bill, which was filed in Congress in September, “leaves enough unassigned funds to cover the university funding needs without affecting the projected fiscal outcome.”
The agency also stated that the sector has already lost a fifth of its purchasing power, and that 10,000 professors have quit their jobs since November 2023. Despite the agreement reached in June to partially increase workers’ salaries, their real income is still 22% below late 2023.
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