University. – There are 5 national universities, with 25 faculties, 15,483 students and 1257 professors. They cost, in 1926, pesos 19,273,232.14, distributed as follows:

For the law n. 1579 of 3 July 1885 the universities have acquired great autonomy: government intervention is limited to the approval of the statutes.

According to EXISTINGCOUNTRIES, the University of Buenos Aires it was founded on 9 August 1821, and in 1877 it became national. It has six faculties: law and social sciences, exact physical and natural sciences, medical sciences, philosophy and literature, agronomy and veterinary science, economics. Each faculty is governed by a dean and a board of directors, made up of fifteen members, who can be university professors or simple graduates. The dean is elected by an assembly made up of full and substitute professors and students, equal in number to that of the full professors, elected by those enrolled in the last years of the course. The councilors are elected by the full and alternate professors, except four, called student councilors, who are elected by the students. The assembly that elects the dean also appoints two titular delegates and two alternates, who, together with the dean, they represent the faculty in the superior council of the university. The rector presides over this council, who is in turn elected by the ninety faculty councilors.

A reform of 1918 gave the vote not only to students, but also to alternates, who previously voted and could only be elected if they were in charge of a chair. The reform also introduced the institution of free teaching, abolished the obligation to attend and instituted seminars, practical exercises, etc.

The adjoining national college was attended by 1285 pupils in the same year, and the business school by 2087.

As already mentioned, students are admitted to almost all faculties with a bachelor’s degree (license); however, some require an entrance exam. All the faculties devote themselves not only to teaching but also to scientific research, and almost all of them publish valuable journals and collections of monographs to disseminate the results of their studies.

The students of each faculty, and often of each group of courses that lead to a particular career, have their own companies, which also publish magazines. The most important society is that of medical students, which has its own grandiose headquarters and an accredited magazine.

The university began to publish its Annals in 1877, two volumes, which, resumed in 1888, were suspended in 1902. In 1904 the Revista de la Universidad was established. In 1924, when the second series began with a different plan, it had 53 volumes. In 1926 the Archivos de la Universidad were founded for administrative communications, while scientific works continue to be published in the Revista.

Each faculty had an academy dedicated to scientific research until 1923. That of medicine and the other of physical-natural sciences were established in 1822; after two years they merged, but they soon ceased. In 1874 the academies were again instituted for the governance of the faculties; in 1908 they split into councils and academies, and in 1923 the latter were made independent by the university. The academies of law, medicine and philosophy and letters have edited publications.

In the year 1897 the university of La Plata was founded, dependent on the provincial government, which developed very slowly, until, in 1903, it was declared national. At that time he had the faculty of legal and social sciences, that of agronomy and veterinary medicine, the museum, the astronomical observatory, the agricultural school of Santa Catalina, the national college and the public library. Subsequently, an elementary school, a secondary school for girls, the faculty of letters and educational sciences, the school of medical sciences, the faculty of scientific sciences, the faculty of physical-mathematical sciences, the high school of fine arts were established. ; the faculty of agronomy and veterinary medicine doubled.

The university and the faculties are governed by the same rules as that of Buenos Aires; and here too the faculties devote themselves to scientific research, the results of which are disseminated through their own publications.

The Faculty of Arts also functions as a normal high school. Among the university institutes, the astronomical observatory, established since 1882, the physics institute and the chemistry institute deserve a special mention. The university has a library with more than 100,000 bibliographic numbers, among which the rich collection of periodicals is remarkable: however, it lacks printed catalogs.

The University of La Plata in 1926 had 1630 students and 224 professors, distributed as follows:

The annexed national college has 908 pupils, the secondary school for girls 291, the school of fine arts 128, the school of agriculture and pastoralism 54, the school of astronomy 2, the workers’ courses of the school of fine arts 64.

The difference in favor of the University of Buenos Aires is due to the fact that that of La Plata can only count on the residents of the city, while students from the interior flock to the former.

The university of Córdoba was founded in 1613, as a college, by the Jesuits and later elevated to university with the bull of Gregory XV. In 1854 it was declared national, and in 1858 it had a new statute. From then his progress began: in 1873 the faculty of exact and physical sciences was established, annexed to the academy of sciences, this one intended for research, the other for teaching; in 1878 the faculty of medical sciences was founded; the following year a new statute was issued, reformed in 1886 to conform it to the university law of 1885.

Until 1917, the teaching was based on the conservative character of the city. But in that year the election of the rector caused the students to mutiny, who, following a sensational strike, obtained a reform of the statute, improvements in teaching, etc.

In 1926, 2428 students were enrolled in this university: 671 in law, 1450 in medicine, 307 in the exact sciences. The three faculties had 159 professors: 27 full and 18 substitutes in the faculty of law, 35 and 23 in that of medicine; 49 and 7 in that of science; the annexed national college had 673 students.

The University of the Coast was founded in April 1920, on the basis of the provincial one of Santa Fe, established in 1889, which included the faculties of law and of pharmacy and obstetrics, as well as some non-university institutes.

At present it is made up of the faculty of legal sciences, based in Santa Fe, founded in place of the old faculty; of the faculty of industrial and agricultural chemistry, in the same city, transformation of the pre-existing industrial school; of the faculty of medical sciences, which is the former faculty of pharmacy and obstetrics, but now resides in Rosario; of the faculty of mathematical, physico-chemical and natural sciences applied to industry, transformation of the industrial school of Rosario, where it is based; the faculty of economic, commercial and political sciences, founded in Rosario in place of the old high school of commerce; of the faculty of economics and education in Paraná, where it integrated the normal school; of the faculty of agriculture, animal husbandry and related industries,

The Rosario business school, the industrial schools of Rosario and Santa Fe and the normal school of Paraná are considered annexed to the university.

The University of the Littoral began its lessons with 1218 students, and in 1927 it had 3094, distributed as follows:

The annexed schools have 2675 pupils. Almost two million pesos were allocated to this university in the national budget in 1927.

Except for small differences, the University of the Coast is governed by the statute of that of Buenos Aires. The faculty executive councils are made up of only 12 members; three of which represent students. The councils elect the representatives to the university’s superior council and the deans. Professors and students are required to vote, and voting is secret.

Last of all, with a provincial law, the university of Tucuman was created in 1912, which should have included the faculty of literature and social sciences, and the sections of pedagogy, commercial studies and living languages, mechanics and industrial and agricultural chemistry. and fine arts. The institute of bacteriology, the museum of natural and artificial products, the chemistry laboratory, the experimental agricultural station and the provincial historical archive were aggregated to the university.

The university began to function in March 1914. The following year, the faculty of chemistry and agriculture, the faculty of physical-mathematical sciences (for bridge and road engineers and land surveyors), the pharmacy school and that of pedagogy. In 1917 a school of drawing and painting was founded.

The university, which in 1918 had 558 students, was declared national in 1921. In 1926 it had two faculties: engineering with 33 students and 9 professors, which conferred 2 degrees, and pharmacy, with 38 students and 8 professors, who released 12 degrees. In addition, the following annexed institutes functioned: the school of drawing and applied art, that for commercial secretaries, that for hygiene visitors, the schools of economics, domestic practice, electrical engineering and mechanics, commercial practice, the normal school and the technical institute.

In 1925 all these schools had 643 pupils.

Popular universities. – This is how some institutions are called, which impart practical or general culture teachings, without their qualifications having official value. There are nine of them, six of which are in Buenos Aires and the others in Rosario, Corrientes and Mendoza. In 1926 they had 8651 pupils and 191 teachers.