Protests in Buenos Aires against university cuts in April were so large that some surveys reported that up to a quarter of the city’s population had claimed to have taken part.

Numbers on the streets might not have reached the putative 750,000 had this been the case, but the fact that so many people at least said they had been there was reflective of the widespread acknowledgement of and concern about institutions’ current plight, said Ana Iparraguirre, an Argentine partner at the Washington-based political strategy company GBAO.

While there was some evidence that the mass demonstrations had influenced the approach of maverick president Javier Milei – who marks the one-year anniversary of his historic election win this month – the situation facing universities and researchers in the country remains dire.

The salaries of academics have lost up to 50 per cent of their real-terms value amid the spiralling inflation that Mr Milei was elected to bring down, and his “shock” dose of austerity has squeezed public universities’ ability to compensate staff for this, with many fearing that the thousands of scholars who have left their roles since the election are just the start of a much larger exodus.

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Junior academics have been hit hardest, according to Valeria Levi, deputy dean of the School of Exact and Natural Sciences at the University of Buenos Aires. The average monthly salary for a teaching assistant position is about $620 (£480), and the pay freeze has left many unable to cover basic expenses such as rent and food, she said.

“Public universities are experiencing a massive loss of human resources,” said Dr Levi. “People are resigning with sadness because, despite their passion for their work, they simply cannot survive on such low salaries.

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“At my institution, we have already lost close to 10 per cent of our staff. If this situation persists, we will not have enough instructors to teach in the coming years.”

Mr Milei has stopped short of a campaign promise to abolish Argentina’s National Scientific and Technical Research Council (Conicet), one of Latin America’s most important science funders, but the body has lost 9 per cent of its workforce since he took power, according to a  by the Ibero-american Centre for Research in Science, Technology and Innovation (CIICTI). Research funding overall has declined by 31 per cent in the same period.

Staff who remain at Conicet have had their pay cut by 30 per cent, and fewer fellowships are being awarded, said Dr Levi. The administrative process for appointing new researchers has been suspended, she added, leaving about 800 junior academics who had already been approved for roles “in limbo”, with many deciding to leave the country instead.

Everything the populist president does is geared towards achieving his one primary objective of reducing the country’s fiscal deficit “at any cost”, said Marcelo Rabossi, a professor in the School of Government at Torcuato Di Tella University in Buenos Aires.

This “myopic” view has neglected the importance of higher education and research in helping the country to develop, he added.

After the April protests and warnings from university presidents that they could no longer afford to leave the lights on, Mr Milei did agree to release more funding to cover universities’ operational costs, but he recently vetoed a bill that would have increased salaries to make up for inflation.

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GBAO’s Ms Iparraguirre said that despite the president’s outsider reputation – he made his name in the election campaign by wielding a chainsaw at rallies – he had shown pragmatism since taking power and appeared to realise that picking a fight with the country’s still widely popular university system had been a mistake.

He has since changed his message, according to Ms Iparraguirre, to one that emphasises that more money for universities must come with greater transparency and accountability – a sentiment that more of the public share – although it has also raised concerns about institutional autonomy.

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Mr Milei has not, however, totally dialled down the public attacks, recently saying “so-called scientists and intellectuals believe that having an academic degree makes them superior beings”.

“If they think their research is so valuable, I invite them to go out into the market like any ordinary person, publish a book and see if people are interested, instead of cowardly hiding behind the coercive power of the state,” he told a right-wing conference.

There was a risk that continued politicisation of science and universities could devalue them and erode the consensus that they are a positive force for Argentina, Ms Iparraguirre warned.

Ultimately, the fate of the Argentine sector depends on whether Mr Milei’s economic therapy works and the country begins to turn around its fortunes, with hopes that a better financial outlook might translate into more funding.

“If he manages to control the exchange rate, and make the payments next year without defaulting, something that is not impossible, then he might defeat the protest movement and win the midterm election in 2025. But it is a big if,” said Matías Vernengo, professor of economics at Bucknell University in Pennsylvania and a former senior research manager at the Central Bank of Argentina.

“Long term, I think this will be very destructive for the Argentine scientific community, and I already see a big exodus in the works. Anyone that can leave is leaving. This, sadly, is not the first time in Argentine history.”

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tom.williams@timeshighereducation.com