I went to grad school in a public university (UFRGS) there for a while, and that kind of contrast was present there too. The campus looks like an abandoned plac

I went to grad school in a public university (UFRGS) there for a while, and that kind of contrast was present there too. The campus looks like an abandoned place, with tall grass everywhere, stray dogs, old buildings full of cracks, etc. But inside the labs, it's a completely different story: high-end machines, lots of computing resources, you name it. Professors make good use of grant money, but the administration doesn't take good care of the campus, probably because a lot of the money that goes to that is diverted somewhere along the way.