Latest news: Students hit the streets in protest

Thousands of students are heading to London today in a show of force to protest at the government’s plans to increase tuition fees. 12/11/2010

Over 24,000 students have registered to take part in the march through central London, with more than 5,000 protesters from London-based universities and large contingents from the Midlands, Yorkshire and Humberside.

A big delegation is expected from Sheffield, where students have been angered by constituent Nick Clegg’s u-turn on his pre-election promise to not increase fees.

The protest is being coordinated by the National Union of Students (NUS)  and the lecturer’s union, the University and College Union (UCU)  

Aaron Porter, the NUS president told the Guardian, ‘This is the largest student protest in a decade…which goes to show the huge extent of discontent with this government’s short-sighted plans, which will effectively privatise large parts of higher education and remove support for many college and adult education learners.’

The protests come after the government’s austerity budget proposed to raise tuition fees as high as £9,500 as well as cutting university funding and budgets on the back of Lord Browne’s review into higher education and student finance.

The NUS/HSBC Student Experience 2010 survey recently found that 79% of students would be put off university by fees of £10,000, whilst 70% would be deterred by fees of £7,000.