Buenos Aires Herald 
Juntos por el Cambio (JxC) primaries presidential candidate Patricia Bullrich said Friday that “almost half” of college students in Argentina are foreigners, blaming them for taking up places meant for Argentine nationals in universities.
“Argentine universities are empty of Argentine students because foreign students come and take those places, they account for almost half of the enrollment,” she said in her dissertation in a forum organized by the International Foundation for Liberty (FIL, by its Spanish acronym.) “Argentines are left in high school graveyards because education has been dismantled and destroyed.”
In Argentina, state-run universities are tuition-free and open to anyone, although post-graduate education generally requires some form of payment.
Soon after Bullrich’s words went viral, Education minister Jaime Perczyk posted the official attendance numbers on social media and reported that the total number of foreign undergraduate, graduate, and postgraduate students is 4 percent in public universities and 5.5 percent in private universities — far from what Bullrich claimed.
The day before, Bullrich had signed an “ethical commitment” to “fight misinformation” during this year’s elections.
“Foreigners who come to the country are welcome and improve our education because they open up exchange possibilities for our university students, and also help us in allowing Argentines pursue undergraduate and graduate studies abroad,” minister Perczyk said.
Science and Technology minister Daniel Filmus also said Bullrich “shows tremendous ignorance,” and accused her of wanting to close down universities and apply austerity measures on state-run universities.
Numerous students from overseas also chimed in on social media. “What you said is not only untrue, but also abhorrent. Not only are you a liar but also a xenophobe,” said a post from Camila Espinola, a Paraguayan migrant studying at the National University of Moreno, that went viral. “If it were true that our universities were populated by migrants, that would be fine because there are no second-class people. At its roots, this country was built by migrant hands,” she added.
According to official information, out of all foreign college students in the country, 95.93% came from the Americas, 2.90% from Europe, and the remaining 1.17% from Asia, Africa, and Oceania.
In the afternoon, Bullrich apologized on Twitter. “I would like to clarify a confusion that came up,” her tweet said.
“In Argentina, 50% of children do not finish high school and only 12% enter university. Our universities also have a very low rate of university graduates. We have to work on improving the graduation rate,” she concluded.
