Warwick students join NUS Demo in London

**98 Warwick students marched in the National Union of Students (NUS) Demo 2012 in London on Wednesday to protest against the government’s higher education policy.**

Before reaching London, students were informed that police had invoked Section 12 of the Public Order Act, meaning that they could face arrest if they diverged from the pre-planned route.

The march proceeded from Temple Place to the Houses of Parliament, where a minor standoff between protesters and police took place. On the bridge itself, elements of the crowd attempted to start a sit down protest that would block the way forward – however, they never numbered more than 20 and the crowd continued past them.

A bottleneck at the start of Westminster Bridge resulted in the march becoming separated into different sections. Protesters at the head of the march were stopped near Waterloo station by the police in order to keep the marchers together.

The protest then continued along Kennington Road and ended with a rally in Kennington Park.

A small group of approximately 30 protestors dissatisfied with the NUS heckled its president, Liam Burns, and other speakers. They then stormed the stage, causing the rally to be cut short, however no Warwick students were involved.

One Warwick student, who declined to be named, criticised the route for its failure to pass by many politically significant locations.

Overall though, Warwick students who were involved were optimistic about their role in the protest.

Robert Ankorn, a second-year PPE student and vice-president of Warwick Labour, said: “This government is launching an affront on higher education and it’s important for students to come down and show that we won’t stand for it.”

Dominic Heslin-Rees, a second-year Mathematics student, said that he “wanted to stress an active participation and not an apathetic role.”

“Warwick has a history of protests like this,” he said. “We need to uphold the values and history of Warwick.”

Education officer James Entwistle was full of praise for the march. He said: “In terms of success, both on campus and nationally, we’ve started the important job of highlighting the failings of the £9,000 regime, of tackling the crazy policies on international students and pushing for an alternative to the postgraduate funding crisis.

“This was a demo where the student voice was heard, loud and clear.”

But Jemma Healey, second-year EPAIS student, said she found it disappointing that the NUS and the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts (NCAFC) did not cooperate well.

“The lack of solidarity was more pronounced than in 2010,” she said.

Despite the major standoff between students and police in front of Parliament, there were no major incidents of violence during the protest.

Mark Sewards, a part-time officer on the exec of the NUS and a former Sabbatical Officer for Leeds Students’ Union (SU), said that in his experience of attending protests. those who want to commit violence are “a tiny, tiny minority – and they’re often not students.”

“I think it’s phenomenal that Students’ Unions have been able to get so many students down here without a vote,” he said.

“Last time we got 50,000 but of course then there was a vote in Parliament. This time there’s no specific policy to mobilise around.”

Daniel Stevens, international students officer for NUS, was seen marching in the protest with students from London Metropolitan University.

Nearly 2,000 international students from London Met faced deportation in August after the university had its license to recruit students from outside the EU revoked.

Mr Stevens said that their plight “symbolises what is happening in the higher education system”.

“[The protest] is about sending a message to the government that they can’t keep attacking education in this way, through the scrapping of Education Maintenance Allowance [EMA] to the raising of tuition fees,” he said.

“The overall policies are completely detrimental. We already know students are being put off from going to university and parents think that those who broke the pledge should either resign or stand down at the next election and the government has to change course.”

The effect of the protest on the lives of ordinary Londoners appeared to be relatively insignificant.

Mr Entwistle commented on the demo’s success: “It was brilliant fun, and the students enjoyed it too. We took about 100 students down, and they really justified the #WeAreWarwick theme.

“I wouldn’t say the majority [of students were from campus political parties], although obviously groups like Warwick Against The Cuts and Warwick Labour are going to be at events like this.

“I want to say thank you to the officers and staff for their help in organising the demo, as well as the NUS for their leadership. Equally, I think a big thank you has to be said to the students who represented our campus down in London.”