The Latin America Supplement
Argentina at a Cross Roads
While Argentina is an attractive destination for international students, funding concerns and inflationary pressures are causing worries.
By Seb Murray
“Without the right governance, social frameworks, and environmental strategies, Latin America’s vast natural resources risk being exploited.”
“We must prepare professionals who not only understand the urgency of sustainability but who can lead and innovate responsibly.”
In Brief
- Argentina's tuition-free higher education system faces an uncertain future amidst government budget cuts and economic instability.
- Deep cuts, including up to 70% budget reductions for public universities and scholarship cuts, combined with a weak peso and high inflation, threaten educational quality despite continued international student appeal.
- As Argentina's higher education faces an existential crossroads, some institutions are innovating with digital internationalisation to ensure global access without physical mobility, aiming to democratise and preserve quality.
Argentina’s higher education system is at a turning point, yet its long-standing combination of academic prestige and open access has set it apart across Latin America.
At its centre is the Universidad de Buenos Aires — Latin America’s most prestigious university, ranked 84th in the world in the 2026 QS World University Rankings. Adding to its appeal, Argentina offers something fairly rare: tuition-free education at public universities for both local and international students, a policy protected under the national constitution.
Up until now, this policy has attracted students from across Latin America and beyond. But last year, the Argentine government, under President Javier Milei, tried to start charging international students tuition fees, a move that was rejected by lawmakers. But the future of the policy remains an open question.
This debate over tuition comes at a time of deep economic strain. In Argentina, prices are still rising quickly, even though inflation has eased from extreme highs. In 2023, the peso lost about 78 percent of its value against the US dollar after a government devaluation, and has kept falling since, though at slower rates.
For international students, a weak currency can make Argentina cheaper at first if they bring money from stronger currencies, but high inflation can quickly reduce those savings. For Argentine scholars going abroad, the same weak peso makes studying overseas far more expensive.
These currency pressures are not the only challenge facing students and universities. Last year, public universities had their funding cut sharply; in some cases losing around 70 percent of their budget.
The cuts, introduced under Milei’s government, have led to large protests and raised worries that tuition-free education in the country may not be able to continue in the same way in the future.
The Alure of Argentina
Even amid a deepening economic crisis, Argentina has continued to attract many international students, especially from nearby countries. In 2022, the latest widely reported official year, its universities had about 123,000 foreign students, roughly 4 percent of all undergraduates and graduates.
The capital, Buenos Aires, welcomed more than 50,000 international students that year, including about 20,000 enrolled in university programmes and many others taking short courses or enrolled in language studies.
For many students, Argentina’s tuition-free public universities are exceptionally appealing. In Latin America, about one in four people live on less than US$6.85 a day. For many families, that makes the cost of studying in another country impossible to afford, but for others makes tuition-free universities in Argentina a very attractive proposition.
Another advantage could be a shared language, Spanish. And little wonder that most of the international students in Argentina hail from nearby Latin American countries. The most recent figures from 2022 show that there were about 24,000 students from Brazil in Argentina. Another 17,000 came from Peru, with 14,000 from Colombia and 12,000 from Bolivia.
The numbers coming from Europe, North America and Asia are far lower. Meanwhile, the country’s higher education system is coming under immense strain. University budgets are under pressure from public spending cuts, inflation that has come down but is still high at nearly 40 percent in June, and a peso that remains weak. All of this makes it more expensive for universities to maintain campuses, pay staff and fund research.
That also makes it harder for international students to pay for costs like housing, food and transport because the peso is weak and inflation remains high.
In some cases, public institutions are stretched thin. In April last year, the Universidad de Buenos Aires warned that its budget had been cut 26 percent in nominal terms and about 80 percent in real terms, with inflation running close to 300 percent at the time. The shortfall forced professors to hold some classes by candlelight or even outdoors to save on energy costs.
Under President Milei, public university funding fell by about 30 percent in real terms during his first ten months in office. The cuts triggered massive protests in April, with tens of thousands marching in Buenos Aires and some students occupying campuses to demand the money be restored. It never was.
“I could never have trained without the free, public university system,” psychology graduate Ana Hoqui tells AFP at a protest. She said she was there to defend the system that had allowed her to study and build a career in medicine. “I feel it’s in danger,” she added.
One-Way Traffic
Data shows that Argentina is more of an importer than an exporter of students. The nation attracts far more international students than the numbers leaving the country to study abroad.
Data from UNESCO shows that about 9,100 Argentine students were enrolled at universities overseas in 2018, the latest year figures are available for. This suggests a modest number of students are leaving Argentina, even against the backdrop of a prolonged economic crisis.
The economy has been on the brink for several years and with job opportunities fairly limited, it would not be surprising if more students wanted to study abroad not just to learn, but to secure a brighter economic future. Last year youth unemployment in Argentina climbed above 21 percent, making it one of the highest in the region and far above the Latin American average of around 13 percent.
Although outbound student numbers are relatively small, the motivation to leave is rising. So far, however, this has not translated into a large-scale student exodus.
Funding Fears
President Milei came to power in late 2023 pledging a radical economic reset. Within months, he introduced deep spending cuts, reduced the size of government and launched rapid deregulation, moving quickly to deliver on his promise of an overhaul.
These changes are already affecting public universities. Although tuition remains free, funding has been heavily reduced. Many fear that if the cuts continue, the quality and accessibility of Argentina’s public universities could be at risk.
Speaking to Al Jazeera, Guillermo Duran, Dean of Sciences at Universidad de Buenos Aires, says that the cuts “diminish the quality of the education we offer in our public universities — an education we have always provided and that is recognised around the world”.
Milei’s government has also cut student scholarships by nearly 70 percent and slashed funding for research agencies, while moving the Education Ministry under a new “Human Capital” Ministry. Many in the education sector see these moves as signs that deeper reforms, and possibly more cuts, could be coming.
Two-Speed System
Not all universities in Argentina are facing the crisis in the same way. Some are finding new ways to keep moving forward, even during economic instability. One example is Universidad Siglo 21, a large private university based in Córdoba, with more than 90,000 students across Argentina.
Maria Rosso, the university’s Rector, says global outreach is now essential. “Internationalisation in higher education is no longer optional. it is a structural condition of our times,” she tells QS Insights Magazine.
But in a country facing economic instability and currency restrictions, sending students abroad is not always possible. That’s why Siglo 21 has developed digital ways to offer global learning experiences.
“Internationalising from the Global South demands creativity, strong alliances and sustainable models,” says Rosso. “Even so, we see a tremendous opportunity in leading more inclusive, digital and collaborative forms of internationalisation that do not rely solely on physical mobility.”
The university uses tools like mirror classrooms, where students in Argentina and abroad join the same live class online, and COIL programmes (Collaborative Online International Learning), where students from different countries work together virtually on shared projects as part of their coursework.
These programmes allow scholars to connect internationally without needing to leave the country. As Rosso explains: “Our commitment is to democratise access to internationalisation, not reserve it for the privileged few.”
Still, the university is careful not to lose sight of its local mission. “How do we internationalise without uprooting, how do we open ourselves to the world without losing our roots?” asks Rosso. “It’s a crucial dilemma, especially in a country marked by deep social inequalities, where urgent local needs often overshadow long-term global strategies.” Ultimately, the country’s higher education sector is at a crossroads. The long tradition of free public tuition is still a big draw for overseas students, especially from nearby countries. But university budgets are tightening and potential education reforms loom large.
Whether the sector can preserve its history of free education against a darkening economic backdrop will shape its academic future.