State funding and expansion of Argentine national universities: the first two decades of the 21st century

Abstract

In the last two decades, the national university sector experienced a remarkable growth in the number of its institutions and its enrollment. This paper analyzes the extent to which the public budget allocated to this sector accompanied this rate of expansion. We analyze the indicators based on official sources for the national university sector as a whole and for three cohorts of national universities grouped according to the year of their creation. From this analysis we conclude that state investment in national universities, measured in terms of a percentage of GDP and total resources in constant values, rose until late 2010, and then followed the ups and downs of expansion and contraction that the Argentine economy began to undergo.  Expenditure per student in real terms decreased, especially from 2018, due to the reduction in the budget and the expansion of enrollment that accompanied the growth of the institutional supply. This expenditure per student also shows intra-group variability. The real teaching salary grew until 2011 and then began to lose purchasing power as an effect of the periods of economic contraction and the increase in inflation from 2015 onwards. The analysis of both indicators – expenditure per student and the level of the teaching salary – reveals that the national university sector faces the challenge of training scientists and professionals while maintaining appropriate levels of quality and promoting equity, not only in access but also in graduation, in a context of resource constraints.