If you are thinking about pursuing your education abroad, Argentina can be one of the good options as it provides top-notch institutes and promising career opportunities. Argentina offers a range of scholarships and financial aid tailored specifically for international students, along with valuable support services provided by many universities, including free Spanish language and cultural courses.

Why consider studying and working in Argentina?

Affordable education: Argentina’s public universities provide tuition-free education for international students, while private institutions offer reasonably priced tuition fees compared to many other countries.

Reputable universities: Argentina is home to several prestigious universities, with the University of Buenos Aires consistently ranked among the top educational institutions in Latin America.

Career opportunities: Argentina’s diverse economy opens up job prospects in various sectors, such as technology, manufacturing, agriculture, and tourism.

Work permits: Upon completing their studies, international students have the opportunity to apply for work permits, allowing them to gain valuable work experience and potentially obtain permanent residency.

Scholarship opportunities in Argentina:

OAS Scholarships: Offered by the Organisation of American States (OAS) in collaboration with Argentine universities, these scholarships cover tuition costs up to $10,000 (Rs 8,31,716) and include benefits like round-trip flights, book allowances, and subsidies. Applicants need to provide TOEFL or IELTS scores for consideration.

Mente Argentina Scholarships: Mente Argentina, a well-known educational institution, offers scholarships for degree courses, diploma courses, internships, and language classes, with benefits including health insurance, tuition fee coverage, travel expenses, and substantial monetary rewards. Proficiency in Spanish is a requirement.

National University of San Juan Scholarships: Undergraduates, graduates, and postgraduate students at the National University of San Juan can qualify for financial assistance, with exemptions of up to fifty or one hundred per cent of tuition fees, depending on the scholarship.

University of Buenos Aires Scholarships: Undergraduate and graduate students at the University of Buenos Aires can access scholarships covering monthly stipends, tuition, accommodation, and transportation, provided they meet the university’s Spanish language proficiency requirements.

Catholic University of Salta Scholarships: The University of Salta offers scholarships for undergraduate, graduate, and postgraduate students, including the Universidad Católica de Salta Easy scholarship. Proficiency in Spanish is necessary to apply.

Holt Scholarships: The Holt Family Foundation, in collaboration with prominent Argentine educational institutions, offers scholarships. Students living in Argentina and those studying there can apply, with each winner receiving a $1,900 (Rs 1,58,021) grant to support their education and associated expenses. Proficiency in Spanish is a requirement for this scholarship. 

(With inputs from World Scholarship Forum)

A man has been detained for attempting to throw a petrol bomb at a gate of the Raj Bhavan in Chennai. The man had tried to do the same thing outside a BJP office in the city a few months ago.

Officials said the incident took place around 2.45 pm on Wednesday and the man attempted to throw the bomb near the Raj Bhavan’s main gate, which is used by Governor RN Ravi.

“The man, identified as one Vinod, will be sent for an examination of his mental health,” said a police official, adding that he is likely to be arrested soon.

The incident comes in the backdrop of the Tamil Nadu governor returning, for the second time, a state government file recommending former director general of police C Sylendra Babu’s appointment as chairman of the Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission.

When the recommendation was sent for the first time, soon after Mr Babu’s retirement at the end of June, Mr Ravi had questioned the criteria for his selection as well as those of other candidates for the post, and asked whether Supreme Court guidelines had been followed. 

The DMK-led Tamil Nadu government had denied that any guidelines had been violated and pointed out that the Governor has no prerogative in such matters and has to abide by the recommendations of the elected government. 

Tensions have been high between the MK Stalin government and Mr Ravi since January, when the governor skipped portions of text during his customary address to the state Assembly. There have been other flashpoints since then as well, including when the governor allegedly suggested changing the name of the state to ‘Tamilagam’.

The DMK government has alleged that Mr Ravi behaves like an agent of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Singh (RSS) and the BJP. 

A global team of scientists has shown in a new study that 20 of the Earth’s 35 vital signs have “worsened beyond anything humans have seen, to the point that life on Earth is imperilled”.

The 20 signs, such as the Arctic sea-ice levels, ice mass loss in Antarctica and Greenland, sea level rise and surface temperature anomaly, are at record extremes, the team of researchers, including those from the US, the UK, Brazil and Bangladesh, said.

The study, published in the journal BioScience, also established pertinent statistics regarding temperatures and greenhouse gas emissions.

For example, 2023 has already witnessed 38 days with global average temperatures more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, the researchers said in their study.

Further, the highest average Earth surface temperature ever recorded was in July, and there was reason to believe it was the highest surface temperature the planet has seen in the last 1,00,000 years, they said.

“Life on our planet is clearly under siege,” said co-lead author William Ripple, a distinguished professor at the Oregon State University, US.

“The statistical trends show deeply alarming patterns of climate-related variables and disasters. We also found little progress to report as far as humanity combating climate change (was concerned),” said Ripple.

On greenhouse gas emissions, the researchers asserted that the Canadian wildfires this year pumped more than 1 gigatonne of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, which they said was higher than the country’s total greenhouse emissions of 2021.

Their study also acknowledged that fossil fuel subsidies had roughly doubled between 2021 and 2022 globally, from USD 531 billion to just over USD 1 trillion. The authors noted that rising energy prices, brought about by Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine, could have contributed to this rise in subsidies.

“The trends indicate the need to drastically speed and scale up efforts globally to combat climate change while more generally reducing our ecological footprint,” said study author Thomas Newsome from the School of Life and Environmental Sciences at the University of Sydney, Australia.

“Extreme weather and other climate impacts are disproportionately felt by the poorest people, who have contributed the least to climate change,” he said, stressing that that all climate-related actions must be grounded in equity and social justice.

The authors say policies are needed that take aim at the underlying issue of “ecological overshoot” and urge transitioning to a global economy that prioritises human well-being and curtails overconsumption and excessive emissions by the rich.

Specific recommendations in their study include phasing out fossil fuel subsidies, transitioning toward plant-based diets, scaling up forest protection efforts and adopting international coal elimination and fossil fuel non-proliferation treaties.

“Without actions that address the root problem of humanity taking more from the Earth than it can safely give, we’re on our way to the potential partial collapse of natural and socioeconomic systems and a world with unbearable heat and shortages of food and freshwater,” said Ripple.