The Senate passed a bill on Wednesday to ensure higher education remains free of charge. The bill, which introduces modification to the Higher Education Law, was authored by Frente Para la Victoria (FPV) legislator Adriana Puiggrós.
The amendment incorporates specific wording that defines free access to higher education as an obligation by the State and a human right. It also stipulates that no citizen can be excluded from accessing higher education based on their social background, and that it is in the hands of the government to ensure this right.
Argentine Senate (photo: Fernando Sturla/Télam)
The first of the two main articles in this law sets forth that public universities will no longer be permitted to charge “any kind of charges, duties, taxes, tariffs or fees”. Puiggrós stipulated that in time, when the enactment of the law goes into discussion, a plan to wean higher institutions off their dependency on fees will be outlined.
The second article bans Argentine universities from taking entrance exams, making access to higher education now “free and unrestricted”. Therefore, competitive examinations and any “exclusion mechanisms” are forbidden.
The law was passed with support from the FPV and UCR, and despite opposition from the PRO party, which had already voted against the initiative in the Chamber of Deputies. PRO Senator Gabriela Michetti was absent during the debate in the Senate. Some universities have also attempted to ward off this measure, stating that the legislation encroaches on their autonomy.
Puiggrós highlighted that this small success does not diminish the need for a major overhaul of the Higher Education Law, passed in 1995.
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