Procedures: how a student defends themselves in Argentina

This guide explains, with sources, what stages the formal procedure has when an Argentine university accuses you of plagiarism or academic fraud on the strength of a detector, and where Descargo fits in each. Spain and Colombia are in procedures.md, Mexico in procedures-mx.md, Chile in procedures-cl.md, and Peru in procedures-pe.md.

This is not legal advice. It is public information put in order. Every fact carries its source and the date a person checked it by reading the official text. What could not be checked is marked to verify. Every university also has its own rules, which take precedence over the general ones: read yours in full before replying to anything.

A detector's percentage is an indication, not a sanction. To sanction you, the university has to open a procedure and let you defend yourself within it.

What applies (checked 2026-11-08)

There is no national law on university discipline. Each university sets its own:

• The Constitución Nacional guarantees «la autonomía y autarquía de las universidades nacionales» (the autonomy and financial self-governance of the national universities) (art. 75, inc. 19) and says: «Es inviolable la defensa en juicio de la persona y de los derechos» (the defence of the person and of rights in court is inviolable) (art. 18) (text on InfoLEG).

• The Ley 24.521 de Educación Superior (updated text on InfoLEG) gives the universities, among other powers, the power to «fijar el régimen de convivencia» (set the code of conduct) (art. 29, inc. l) and to establish «el régimen de admisión, permanencia y promoción de los estudiantes» (the regime of admission, continuation and progression of students) (art. 29, inc. j). It requires the students of state institutions to «respetar los estatutos y reglamentaciones de la institución» (respect the institution's statutes and regulations) (art. 14, inc. a).

So the stages, the deadlines and the offences come from your university's own rules. What follows is the example of the UBA, the largest in the country. Use it to know what to look for in yours, not as if it were yours.

Example: the UBA

Source: the disciplinary regime for students (Resolución CS 2283/88, as amended), now in the Código UBA, Libro I, Título 13, Capítulo F, arts. 501 to 523 (text).

What counts as an offence

The regime lists the offences and assigns a sanction to each:

Sanctions must be individualised «en forma proporcional a la gravedad de la falta cometida» (in proportion to the seriousness of the offence committed) (art. 503). Offences lapse after one, five or ten years, depending on their seriousness (art. 519).

The UBA's disciplinary regime does not mention plagiarism: it neither defines it nor gives it a sanction. The Código UBA names it in two other places:

• Guidelines for the faculties' academic regimes (Libro I, Título 19, Capítulo E, arts. 401 to 403; RESCS-2025-2195; text). They say the faculties "must establish mechanisms to guarantee the authorship of academic work" (deberán establecer mecanismos para garantizar la autoría de las producciones académicas), among them "plagiarism-detection tools", and recommend that each academic regime refer to Capítulo F and list, "by way of guidance", the conduct that could be sanctioned ("fraud, plagiarism, impersonation, unauthorised collaboration"). They are guidelines: they neither define plagiarism nor set its sanction.

• Two postgraduate programmes of the Faculty of Economic Sciences: the Especialización and the Maestría in Seguridad Informática (Libro IV, Título 8, Capítulo Q, arts. 1741 to 1744, and Título 9, Capítulo Z, arts. 2656 to 2659). Their thesis regulations do define plagiarism (presenting other people's ideas as your own, paraphrase included, or using their output without crediting the source "however small it is"). Once proved, "whatever its extent", the work is rejected with a zero and the examining panel classes the offence as minor (a new work within six months), serious (a one-year suspension) or very serious (two years). You can ask for reconsideration in writing within five days. This holds only for those programmes, not for undergraduate study. In the rest of the Código, "plagiarism" appears only as the content of a course.

If your own faculty regulates it in its academic regime, outside the Código UBA, that is still to verify. If they charge you with an offence, ask them to tell you which article covers it: it is a point for your defence.

The stages of the disciplinary inquiry (sumario, arts. 505 to 512)

1. Complaint. In writing, with «la relación circunstanciada de los hechos» (a detailed account of the facts). The university can also open the inquiry on its own initiative (art. 505).

2. Opening and investigator. Within 48 hours, the dean (or the rector) decides whether to open the inquiry and appoints an investigator, who summons you to give a statement within five days (art. 506).

3. Investigation. The investigator gathers the evidence and submits conclusions on «el mérito de la prueba y la eventual procedencia de una sanción» (the merit of the evidence and whether a sanction may be appropriate) (art. 507).

4. Charges. If there is no merit, the case is dismissed. If there is, you are served with the conclusions and have ten days from notification to submit your observations and offer evidence (art. 508).

5. Evidence and closing arguments. The investigator orders the evidence you offered, except what is refused with reasons. Once the evidence is taken, you have five days to present your closing arguments (art. 509).

6. Resolution. The dean (or the rector) decides «por auto fundado» (by a reasoned order), «evaluando la prueba con sana crítica» (assessing the evidence with sound critical judgment) (art. 510).

7. Appeal. A warning cannot be appealed. A suspension is appealed to the Consejo Directivo (or the Consejo Superior) within ten days of notification, with the grounds in the same document, and the appeal has suspensive effect (the sanction is not applied while the appeal is pending) (art. 511).

In serious cases, the dean can suspend you as a precaution for up to 60 days during the inquiry. That decision is appealed within five days, also with suspensive effect (art. 512).

To verify: whether those days are working days or calendar days. The regime does not say, and no general rule settles it with certainty:

• The Ley 19.549 on administrative procedure counts time limits "in administrative working days" (por días hábiles administrativos; art. 1 bis, g, ii). But its art. 1 lists whom it applies to (the national public administration, the other branches of government when they carry out administrative activity and, as a supplementary rule, certain non-state public bodies) and does not name the universities.

• The UBA's Administrative Procedure Regulation (Código UBA, Libro I, Título 60, Capítulo A, art. 1) applies Decreto 1759/72 (T.O. 2017) only to "electronic administrative files and proceedings" and "as long as they do not collide with University Autonomy and the specific procedures in force at the University". That decree says, for what is uploaded to its platform, that the count of time limits starts "on the first working day after" (art. 30).

Until this is clarified, count them as calendar days and file early. Ask your faculty in writing how it counts them, and keep the answer.

If the university does not respect your rights

Against the final resolutions of national universities, the Ley 24.521 provides a direct appeal before the Cámara Federal de Apelaciones of the place where the university has its main seat (art. 32). At the UBA, the Consejo's resolution on a suspension appeal is final (art. 511).

The law does not set a deadline for that appeal, but one court has specified it. The Cámara Federal de Apelaciones of General Roca, in its Acordada 08-S/13 (20-11-2013), provides that:

• The appeal is filed with the university body that issued the act, not directly with the Cámara (if it reaches the Cámara, the Cámara forwards it to the university, and the deadline runs to the date it was filed with the Cámara).

• The university checks that it was filed within thirty days of notification of the final resolution that exhausts the administrative route (art. 25, in fine, of Ley 19.549, applied in a supplementary way).

• It is enough to file it: the grounds are not stated in that document (if they are, it is returned).

• Granting the appeal does not suspend the effects of the act (art. 12 of Ley 19.549).

If the university does not decide, the Procuración General argued in a 2021 opinion (case FCT 7653/2015) that the art. 25 deadline does not run, but the limitation periods do. Even so, count the thirty days from the moment you are notified, and see a professional as soon as you receive the resolution.

To verify: whether those thirty days are working days, whether the other Federal Courts of Appeals apply the same rule (only General Roca's was read), and whether other judicial routes are open.

To verify

• Whether each UBA faculty regulates plagiarism in its own academic regime, outside the Código UBA, and how the other universities do.

• Whether the UBA's inquiry deadlines are counted in working days: it depends on whether the Ley 19.549 and Decreto 1759/72 apply to the disciplinary regime, which is not established.

• Whether the thirty days for the appeal under art. 32 of the Ley 24.521 are working days, and whether every Federal Court of Appeals applies General Roca's rule.

• The regime of private and provincial universities: art. 32 speaks only of the national ones, and their procedure comes from their own statute.

Where Descargo fits

How this was checked

The Constitución Nacional and the Ley 24.521 were downloaded from InfoLEG (the updated text of the law, which already includes the changes made by Decreto 366/2025), and the UBA's disciplinary regime from the Código UBA on its official website, on 2026-11-08. The quotations were searched for in the text. On 2026-11-10 "plagio" was searched for across the whole Código UBA with its website's search (16 results) and the chapters that regulate it were read. On the question of plagiarism, nothing outside the Código has been read. The same day the UBA's Administrative Procedure Regulation (art. 1) was read too and, on InfoLEG, the updated text of the Ley 19.549 and Decreto 1759/72 (T.O. 2017). Rules change: check this document's date and that the text is still in force before relying on it.

Acordada 08-S/13 of the Cámara Federal de General Roca (a copy published by UnTER Seccional Roca) and the Procuración General's opinion in case FCT 7653/2015 (mpf.gob.ar) were downloaded on 2026-11-10, and the quotations were searched for in the text.

Source text of this guide on GitHub