Students to march against fees

The National Union of Students (NUS) and the University and College Union (UCU) will be marching through the streets of London in protest against the proposed education cuts this Wednesday, 10 November.

The aim of the demonstration is to oppose the Government’s planned increase of tuition fees as outlined in the Browne Review, as the NUS believes that “Education and skills will… be key to our economic recovery”. The protest on Wednesday comes ahead of the vote in parliament, which will be in the next couple of months.

According to the Facebook event advertising the demonstration, over 8,000 students are expected to assemble at 11:30am on Horse Guards’ Avenue whereas the Warwick SU website expects “tens of thousands” of students to attend the protest.

Many students feel very strongly about the issue. “Increasing fees is just going to further increase the gap between classes and drastically reduce the diversity of people to be met at university. With just upper class students attending, university would become a narrow-minded institution instead of a cosmopolitan enrichment,” said Kate Nicholas, an English and French student. Kate added that she will not be attending the demonstration, ironically, because of a lack of money.

Professor Robin Naylor and NUS President Aaron Porter discussed how it is “crucial” that students show the government that they will not support an open market in tuition fees when speaking at Higher Fees? The Big Debate at the SU in October.

“By overpricing education the government are making a quite simply disasterous move,” said Tom Davies, a first year History and Politics student. Tom, who plans to attend the demonstration on Wednesday, added that he realised that “cuts will have to be made in this period of economic difficulty,” but “what can be more important for the economy and our ‘big society’ in the long term than a good education?”

However, not all students agree with the protest. One, who wished not to be named, said that “It will be worth it as long as something happens about the tuition fees, but are the people in charge of it all actually going to take any notice of a few students? I don’t think so.”

Another first year Physics student said that he was not attending the demonstration because he did not agree with it, stating that “unfortunately, in the real world the universities must be financed somehow,” and “as such, an increase in tuition fees… will give universities the much needed cash boost to stay afloat.”

As part of the ‘Warwick SU Puts Its Foot Down’ campaign to stop cuts in education, the Students’ Union (SU) has subsidised the cost of a bus to and from the event on Wednesday for Warwick Students, meaning that the cost of travelling to the demonstration will only be £5, thus allowing many more students to participate.

“I think it is good that the SU is subsidising travel costs, [as] it shows that they are taking it seriously,” said a first year English student.