Students Stage National Day Of Action Over University Tuition Fees

Students are staging a national day of action on Wednesday in protest at the hike in tuition fees and will boycott university lectures across the country.

The National Union of Students (NUS) said its members will walk out of lectures to join rallies, marches and petition signings.

Action will be held at a number of campuses, primarily in England, including King's College and Goldsmiths in London and universities in Sussex, Liverpool, Manchester, Kingston, Brighton, Birmingham, East Anglia, Bournemouth, York and Edinburgh.

The NUS said students will be demonstrating their anger at ministers who have not made clear their plans for increased "marketisation" of higher education and the "hidden costs" of university education such as books, trips and other essential equipment like lab coats.

NUS president Liam Burns advocated the need for a national debate on higher education changes and the week of action "remind ministers that we are watching what they're doing".

"When the government quietly dropped plans for a higher education Bill earlier this year they didn't drop their plans," he continued. "They simply removed the opportunity for the kind of scrutiny that has been afforded to changes to the NHS.

"Students, parents, lecturers and anyone with a stake in education wants to know what the government and our institutions have in store for higher education and demand that they come clean."

The walkout is part of a week of action designed to show that high tuition fees, hidden course costs and a lack of bursaries are pricing students out of education.

The NUS said it wants universities to explain the true the cost of being a student, and for the government to spell out the future of the education system.

A Business Department spokesman said: "We are putting students at the heart of the system, with a diverse range of providers offering high-quality teaching. Going to university depends on ability not the ability to pay.

"Most new students will not pay upfront, there will be more financial support for those from disadvantaged backgrounds and everyone will make lower monthly loan repayments than they do now once they are in well paid jobs.

"Students, like other citizens, have the right to participate in peaceful protest."

The action follows the mass march on 9 November when thousands of students took to the streets of the capital to voice their anger against the fee rise (see pictures below).