News brief

Argentinian student protesters want better-funded universities. Hundreds of thousands of Argentines filled the streets of Buenos Aires and other cities to demand increased funding for the country’s public universities, in an outpouring of anger at libertarian President Javier Milei’s harsh austerity measures. Students and professors coordinated with the country’s powerful trade unions and leftist political parties to push back against budget cuts that have forced Argentina’s most venerable university to declare a financial emergency and warn of imminent closure.

Libertarian President Javier Milei came to office last December on a promise of turning Argentina’s economy around by drastically reducing government payouts, slashing the size of the state, and dollarizing the economy. 

Argentine public universities are free and don’t require entry exams, but the low graduation rates have experts asking if higher education can be both inclusive and high quality.