University reform in Argentina

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The Argentine university reform of 1918 was a general modernisation of the universities, especially tending towards democratisation, brought about by student activism. The events started in Córdoba and spread to the rest of Argentina, and then through much of South America.

1 Background
2 Demands
3 Conflict
4 Repercussions
5 See also
6 External links

[edit] Background

Ever since the Jesuits founded the first university in Argentina in the 17th century, education was managed by the clergy and the conservative upper-class citizens. The universities' authorities were selected by them, and professors were designated for life. Professors also decided on the subjects to be taught, usually following the preferences of the Church, keeping modern ideas such as Darwin's theory of evolution in the dark.

But the end of the 19th century brought many changes to Argentina. With the coming of European immigrants in large waves, new ideas arrived which were opposed to the old oligarchic conservatism. The 1912 Sáenz Peña Law of secret vote brought the less conservative Hipólito Yrigoyen to the presidency in 1916.

It was in 1918 that the students of the Universidad de Córdoba, probably the most conservative in Argentina at the time, demanded a revision of the university's statutes to modernise and democratise them. They succeeded in creating student centres, but their demands were ignored.

[edit] Demands

The demands of the students can be summarized in four main topics:

University autonomy: the right for the university to choose its own government, professors and studies without the intervention of the government or any other organism.
Co-government: the equality of all parties in the university (students, professors and graduated students) to participate in the election of the above.
Scientific modernisation: a review of the contents of curricula, to include modern scientific knowledge to the study material.
No tuition: the right for every student to acquire university education at a state university without any cost.

[edit] Conflict

Students take control of the Córdoba University

The conflict started with a lateral problem, the cancellation of the patients beds at the Hospital de Clínicas university hospital in late 1917.

On March 31, 1918, when classes should have been restarted, the students organised another strike, with demonstrations, that finally forced the national government to intervene the university.

José Matienzo was named intervenor of the university, and he confirmed most of the irregularities described by the students. He declared vacant the positions of Rector of the university and Deans of the faculties, and commanded the democratisation of the university's statutes. But the students were not to be part of this process, since the conservative Antonio Nores was voted Rector of the University, against the wishes of the students.

The students occupied the faculties' premises, so classes could not be restarted regularly. They resisted the police and were finally driven out by force by the national army. This produced a general uneasiness of the public throughout the country, which forced President Yrigoyen to appoint his Minister of Justice and Public Education, José S. Salinas, as a new intervenor of the university. The decree of the university reform was redacted on October 12 1918.

[edit] Repercussions

The success of the students' demands in Córdoba soon spread to other important universities such as the Universidad de Buenos Aires and the Universidad Nacional de La Plata, from which it extended to other Latin American countries: first to Peru, then Chile and Cuba, Colombia, Guatemala and Uruguay. In the 1930s, a second Latin American wave of university reforms shook Brazil, Paraguay, Bolivia, Ecuador, Venezuela and Mexico.

Since the University Reform, the student organisations kept a tight link to workers' organisations and labor unions, frequently joining the cause of the other in demonstrations and protests. Another consequence was the politicizing of the student centres for the elections inside the universities, which that are usually connected to, identified with, and supported by national political parties.