Throughout the UK, our students' unions democratic structures are being attacked, more often by their university rather than their elected student officers. It's time to tell QUBSU that they can't simply ignore the rules.

The next few weeks will be pivotal for the future of student activism within QUBSU, Belfast, ULU and London. We will not let them abolish our unions, nor will we let them sell our unions bit by bit to private companies, which may as well be the same thing.

With the NUS-sponsored student demonstration in London this week, the words 'student protest' and 'tuition fees' are set to become media buzzwords once more. For some however, they are not merely a news item or Twitter trend, but rather something altogether more important and fundamental.

This is not a good time to be a student in college or university. Stories about soaring youth unemployment and scarce opportunities for graduates pepper the news bulletins. Ours is a generation with less of an idea of how our lives will pan out than any before us. No wonder we feel cheated.