Thousands of people flooded the streets of Rosario to protest the demands of the UNR university community, which once again called on the national government to comply with the Funding Law. “What more needs to be done? What more do we have to do to get answers?” asked Rector Franco Bartolacci.
It resonated loudly. The university community expressed with emotion, dignity, power, and also weariness, the demand for the implementation of the University Funding Law, approved on August 21, 2025, and still unfulfilled. Students, faculty, staff, and researchers from the Universidad Nacional de Rosario (UNR) were thousands and demonstrated this afternoon through the streets of the city of Rosario to join forces and make heard the urgent need for salaries to be restored and the budgets for its operation to be updated.
The signs once again captured attention with their expression of complex demands conveyed in short, profound, emotive, and poignant phrases, designed to stand out and entertain during the march and later be replicated in thousands of images on social media. “Let’s value our teachers,” “We demand what is ours,” “If they empty the classrooms, we’ll fill the streets,” “Honor your place,” “We all take care of it,” “I march for my future,” “An educated populace is harder to control,” “I love you, UNR.”
As the sun set, already gathered in front of the Flag Monument, the speech of the Rector of the UNR Franco Bartolacci, also president of the National Interuniversity Council (CIN), was broadcast on screen. From the crowd in Buenos Aires and representing the rectors from all over the country, he closed the main event.
“Time is always on the side of good dreams, on the side of public education that makes us equal. On the side of the public university that transforms our lives forever. We will not be the generation that watches the university system simply fade away, we will not be the generation that lets the public university die. That is why we are so determined. We are in a tremendously critical situation and the national government knows it; funding has fallen by 45%, we are operating at half our capacity and potential,” he exclaimed from the stage in Plaza de Mayo.
Bartolacci vehemently asserted that “today, the most distressing situation is that of faculty and staff who require a salary increase because they continue to lose ground to inflation every month. We are not asking for privileges; we are asking for decent wages so we can continue training good professionals.” A 50% salary increase is needed to update salaries and return to the starting point of the discussion on university system funding.
“We were firm and vehement because we didn't want to reach this point. We used all institutional channels, and we received no response. We went to Congress, we got the Law passed, and after the veto, we upheld it with a supermajority. In December, even with a new makeup of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, we managed to uphold it again. We went to the courts to demand what would be absurd in any other country in the world: that a Law passed with such legitimacy be applied, be enforced. The question is, what needs to be done to get these answers? What needs to be done? That's why we came together again. We marched to defend the Law. It should never be a problem for a country. We marched so that the public university changes people's lives, so that it becomes a vehicle for upward mobility. We marched so that my son's idea, the doctor, doesn't become a thing of the past. We marched in defense of democracy, of the rule of law, we marched for the enforcement of the Law. The precedent is dangerous; it's not that it's valid when they like it and invalid when they don't.” "Everything within the law, nothing outside the law. Comply with the law, so that the Public University can continue to stand, for us and for all the inhabitants who wish to live on Argentine soil," he roared.
The march in Rosario began in Plaza San Martín, proceeding along Dorrego, then San Lorenzo, to Laprida, and finally Santa Fe, converging at the National Flag Memorial around 5:00 PM. The demonstration stretched for blocks throughout the city center. On stage, musicians and professors from the School of Music at the Faculty of Humanities and Arts of the National University of Rosario (UNR) performed, culminating in speeches by representatives from COAD, APUR, FUR, and a joint statement from the UNR. The central theme of the speeches was the erosion of wages, with salaries requiring "a 53% increase to keep pace with inflation since 2023," according to Federico Gayoso of COAD.
In this sense, and as an example of the decline in budget allocations for Universities, there is a key piece of data that explains the reasons behind the insistent demands of the university community: in 2023, the budget allocated to the entire national university system was 0,72% of GDP, while it is estimated to be 0,47% of GDP according to projections for 2026, while transfers show a cumulative real decrease of 45,6%.
The People's University
“I’m not a professional, but my children are, and I’m grateful for that opportunity, which is why I’m here,” confessed Graciela in one of the many testimonies shared during the march. “The University allowed me to understand my reality, and to know that others exist, and to learn about them through great professors,” summarized Fabricio, a young man studying Economics.
At the National University of Rosario (UNR), 59,7 percent of incoming students in 2025 are first-generation university students, meaning they are children of parents who did not complete university studies. This figure is yet another example of how thousands of people each year are approaching university studies for the first time and seeking to build their future in the classrooms of the public university.
The main demands of this afternoon's historic demonstration in Rosario and throughout the country are the National Government's non-compliance with the University Financing Law, the disobedience of court rulings that ordered in two instances the immediate compliance of articles 5 and 6 of the law - which specifically refer to the restoration of salaries and scholarships -, the drop in funding, the cuts to hospital budgets and the freefall in salaries.
Today's march was the fourth in a series of mobilizations that began on April 24, 2024, with a massive demonstration primarily in Buenos Aires. In Rosario, the gathering was in Plaza San Martín. The second march took place on October 2, 2024, in front of the National Congress, and in Rosario, it was replicated in Plaza Montenegro. The third march was on September 17, 2025, coinciding with the session that rejected the presidential veto. That day in Rosario, the march began in Plaza San Martín and culminated at the Puerto Joven esplanade, where the traditional UNR Career Expo was being held.
As follows
“There are few laws in Argentine history with as much legitimacy as this one. It has been debated and upheld on numerous occasions, but it is not being implemented, something that is the responsibility of the Executive Branch,” Bartolacci stated.
For now, the law remains stalled in the courts. In April, Judge Martín Cormick suspended its implementation, almost a month after the Third Chamber of the Federal Administrative Court ruled in favor of the appeal filed and two weeks after the government filed a direct appeal (per saltum). Judge Cormick's decision was appealed by the National Interuniversity Commission (CIN), but the Chamber granted the national government's extraordinary appeal and suspended the execution of the injunction that would have compelled the Executive Branch to immediately implement the university funding law. The matter will be addressed by the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation, while the university community's demands, pressure, and insistence are focused on the government convening the universities and disbursing the funds earmarked for faculty salaries, student scholarships, and university operations.
“We ask the Supreme Court of Justice to stand with us and listen to the outcry from the plazas across the country and not allow the national government to continue violating the University Funding Law. Our cause is based on the right to education, the essential nature of salaries and scholarships, and the obligation of the national government to fund public universities,” concluded the document, which Darío Masía, Vice-Rector of the UNR, read at the end of the historic gathering at the National Flag Monument.
Journalist: Micaela Pereyra / Photographers: Karen Roeschlin – Ramiro Ortega