2023-07-31 08:03:15
Andres Godoy
There were several foreigners who repeated it back in March, when the entrance course and the flood of applicants again put the magnifying glass on Medicine. That they come to Argentina, and especially to La Plata, attracted by the free education (something unthinkable in their countries of origin) and the academic facilities of a school that does not take an admission exam. That they choose our country only to study, as a place of passage during the time that the degree takes them and then, at the end, they return to practice in their homeland because it guarantees them the stability and economic resources that they cannot find here. They said, in other words, that they take advantage of the free education of the La Plata faculty to train and, once received, reapply the fruits of that training in the land where they were born.
Much has been said from these pages about the exponential growth of entrants that the Faculty of Medical Sciences of the National University of La Plata (UNLP) has experienced since the end of 2015, when unrestricted admission without examination of any kind was applied. Something that acted like a magnet so that this year the crowded classrooms of 60 and 120 are divided into (almost) equal halves between Argentines and foreigners, to whom some experts propose charging a fee during their studies in the country. A quota that, copying the Uruguayan system, for example, could be allocated to low-income students who, even if they wanted to and due to various difficulties, cannot pursue a career such as Medicine.
Today, one out of every two entrants to obtain a medical diploma comes from another country. Of the 4,471 who enrolled in that degree in this academic cycle, 2,168 (48 percent) do not have an Argentine document and half of them (1,167) come from Ecuador.
With 421 (17.5 percent of migrants) registered, Brazilians follow, who until 2021 were the majority among those who came from other countries to study at 60 and 120 and who today, as indicated, are displaced by Ecuadorians.
Among the applicants for Medicine there are also 350 Colombians (14.5 percent) and 226 Peruvians (9 percent), according to the Rector’s records that EL DIA accessed.
barrage and claims
However, regardless of nationality, the thousands of students who entered Medicine in the last three years generated difficulties that led to the resignation of professors and criticism from the majority group of graduates. The students pointed out in different statements that classrooms are missing and the number of teachers required for such a large number of students is not designated. Only from last year to this, Medicine added 33% more entrants, unlike what happened at the UBA, where almost 17% less was scored for the Common Basic Cycle (CBC) exam than in 2022.
On the other hand, there are those who are determined to raise a new debate. A dichotomy that could start from the question: Teaching foreigners for free who, once they finish their studies in the country, return to practice in their places of origin or grant scholarships to young Argentines who would like to study Medicine but (even in the public system) do not Can they access due to lack of resources?
In this sense, the data that emerges from the last Permanent Household Survey of INDEC is worrying: only one in ten young people from the poorest sectors reaches the University in Argentina. At the other extreme, almost half of Argentines with the highest income, between the ages of 19 and 25, are studying for a university degree.
The enormous gap is also closely linked to secondary school graduation rates: a high percentage of the poorest boys do not even manage to finish school and those who do finish it without being able to understand a simple text or without knowing how to solve the four mathematical operations. While faculties such as Medicine are populated by foreigners, the difficulties of access to higher education for the most vulnerable young Argentines persist in a free system with unrestricted admission, an unprecedented formula in the world. But this alleged progressivity is not enough to include all those who might want to study a career in health and cannot.
exam and fee
Is it that the public university has ceased to be that engine of social mobility to establish itself as a house of studies for the elite?
Marcelo Rabossi, who is a professor and researcher at the Torcuato Di Tella University, proposes “analyzing the policies that the State has adopted to try to solve a model that is regressive in its results (those who have more receive a greater reward)” and maintains that “although it is true that the opening of new national universities in localities of the most vulnerable areas of the Conurbano facilitated the arrival of first-generation university students, the system continues to be expulsive for those students from lower-income sectors, despite free entry.
Consulted for this note, Rabossi adds that “one of the problems that higher education in Argentina is going through is the lack of strategic order in terms of the professionals it needs to boost its economy. Specifically, in the health sciences, it is not that we graduate few doctors, but because of a lack of incentives, they are poorly distributed geographically, which implies shortages in some areas and, furthermore, the problem could worsen in the future if many of them (as in the case of those who study in La Plata) emigrate abroad”.
The professor defends that the university should be free for anyone who wishes to study, regardless of their nationality. “But with a prior evaluation process that orders the demand. Yes, and in the case of medical sciences, since it is a career in the public interest, there must be an entrance exam to select for quality, quotas in relation to the human and material resources available to the university and the next step, an incentive policy that retains graduates to practice in the country, mainly in areas where there is a shortage of professionals”.
Rabossi insists that it is “correct” that foreigners are not charged a fee, “but as long as it is within a strategic policy that seeks to retain them as professionals.” And as for granting scholarships to Argentines, “of course you have to do it if they are students with good academic potential and the impediment to continue studies in medical sciences is of a monetary nature. In this sense, he must give priority to the concept of vertical equity (more help to those who need it the most) ”.
other voices
For her part, Guillermina Tiramonti, a researcher in the Education area of Flacso, clarifies that the presence of many foreigners only occurs in La Plata and in Medicine. In this sense, she asserts: “I think the University spends its resources badly. We could start by improving this expense, which has nothing to do with the nationality of the students, but with the inefficiency of their managers” and states: “I think we can charge foreigners a premium, demand a regular course and force them to work in favor of of the country in the two years after graduation. The rest would be a useless and destructive act of the traditional Argentine generosity”.
Dr. Andrés Echazarreta, representative of Medicine graduates in the Superior Council of the UNLP, believes that “the country needs human resources trained in our universities to best face the challenges of an increasingly complex and demanding world.” . He believes, in this sense, that there must be equity added to equality to allow less favored sectors of society to study with subsidies or scholarships: “There is a lot of homework to be done, in light of the increase in the time that students take to received. I firmly believe that the public university should continue to be free. That proved to elevate us as a society in the 20th century ”, he underlines.
Then, when analyzing the phenomenon of foreigners in the faculty of 60 and 120, Echazarreta warns that, “as in many other countries, there should be reciprocity agreements in such a way that, just as foreign students, Argentines attend our universities in equal measure can do so in their countries of origin. Finally, in the case of allowing the enrollment of these students in our country, there should inevitably be a requirement so that at the end of the degree the graduate is obliged to return their education with work in our country for a period of not less than 3 to 5 years in the area in which it was formed.
The president of the UNLP, Martín López Armengol, admits that he does not have a position taken on whether foreigners should remain to practice in the country once received. “The system does not have that requirement, but many are still doing their doctoral scholarship in the centers and laboratories of the University.” On the other hand, he points out that the Rectorate implements “a system of scholarships developed with the dining room, the shelter, the economic aid and devices so that the boys can enter, remain and graduate from the University”. And that this, added to its “prestige and recognition”, in addition to its free admission and unrestricted admission, make UNLP an ideal attraction to summon students from all over the continent.
For years, due to the economic crises, the Argentine State has not invested what it should in the training of university professionals and scientific research.
This forces those who manage public money to set priorities that correspond to the needs of the country and the demand for social mobility, which unfortunately is not properly addressed in the educational system. Therefore, without prejudice, it would be necessary to discuss whether it is convenient and fair to provide free education to foreigners when that same money could be used to grant scholarships to young Argentines who must work for family needs and cannot pursue careers such as Medicine or Engineering.
In 60 and 120, one out of every two entrants is not Argentine. Most are from Ecuador
Medical Sciences added 33% of applicants this year. The UBA received 17% less
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