On Monday, May 27, the national government will receive the authorities of the National Interuniversity Council (CIN) to resume a work agenda that will aim to agree on an update of the university budget assigned during the 2023/2024 period. Likewise, the expense reporting regime that national universities must comply with will be discussed. The meeting will be headed by the Minister of Human Capital, Sandra Pettovello.
The meeting was called by Pettovelloalthough the Secretary of Education will also be present at the work table, Carlos Torrendelland the Undersecretary of University Policies, Alejandro Alvarez. Although the focus will be on the review of the current budget item, it is expected that the parties can reach an agreement to outline the budget that will be allocated in 2025.
The Government will seek to promote measures aimed at guaranteeing the transparency of public funds assigned to higher education institutions and the expense reporting regime that must be carried out by the authorities of each house of higher education.
In line with the review of the resources used by the universities, the operation of the University Infrastructure Planbudgetary restrictions and an attempt will be made to find a method to rationalize the use of funds granted by the Undersecretary of University Policies (SSPU).
Among the topics that will be addressed at the meeting will be the situation in which the researchers, administration centers linked to the CONICET and the state of the infrastructure intended for the development of research. Likewise, work will be done on the preparation of the National Literacy Plan promoted by the Ministry of Education of the Nation.
Another objective of public officials will be the consolidation of new policies that facilitate compliance with article 33 of Law No. 24,521 on Higher Education, which establishes that university institutions must promote “the pluralistic coexistence of currents, theories and lines research”. In line with this, emphasis will be placed on the fight to eradicate ideological persecution, discrimination for political reasons and anti-Semitism.
Despite the dialogue and the working bridge that was built between the Government and the university authorities, the CIN assured that there is no agreement closed between the parties when referring to the update of 270% of the funds allocated for the operation of the universities. universities announced by the presidential spokesperson Manuel Adorni last Tuesday.
As far as he could know Infobaethe Government’s proposal was made within the framework of an informal meeting and provides for the commitment to match the update achieved by the UBA of 270%, but the issue will be debated this Monday. The CIN, for its part, questioned whether an agreement had been reached with the UBA, which is why it highlighted the situation of the rest of the national universities in the rest of the country.
On the other hand, the rector of the National University of Rosario, Franco Bartolacci, recognized that the budget update for the rest of the universities “would be an important step that recognizes what public universities have been proposing since January.” Likewise, he pointed out that the measure would give “an answer to what we have been demanding since the discretionary decision was made to update the budget of the UBA, ignoring 60 universities that throughout the country represent 85% of the more than 2 million of students that the Argentine public university system has.”
