Over 30 teachers and researchers from the University of Buenos Aires’s Agronomy Faculty resigned recently as the wages crisis worsens, the institution said in a statement. Dean Adriana Rodríguez said salary stagnation, which affects all teaching and non-teaching staff at public universities, is one of the leading causes. 

“We are losing the most valuable asset that the public university creates: highly qualified professionals who support research and technological development in our country,” she said.

According to the communiqué, delays in updating the budget following cuts and inflation accumulated to the point where FAUBA salaries were well below others in the public sector. The lag is leading many young professors to leave their posts to settle and work in universities abroad. 

The statement notes that staff “earn no more than 900 thousand pesos (US$923 at the official rate, US$772 at the MEP rate) per month.”

“This, along with the paralysis of the Science and Technology system, means there are not enough resources to carry out research,” Rodriguez added.

FAUBA’s statement was published just as the Milei administration clinched a significant win in Congress on Wednesday afternoon — the Lower House upheld his presidential veto of the university funding bill, which faculty urged deputies to protect.

On Monday, the Human Capital Ministry announced it would grant university professors and staff a 6.8% salary raise via decree. Unions rejected the proposal, saying it falls far below inflation. 

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