Hundreds march over university tuition fees

HUNDREDS of demonstrators marched in central London yesterday to demand access to free, quality education across the UK.

Carrying placards reading “fund our colleges” and “education not deportation”, activists gathered near Parliament for a rally organised by the National Union of Students (NUS) alongside the University and College Union (UCU).

A range of speakers voiced their opposition to the Higher Education Bill, which includes plans to allow universities in England to increase their tuition fees in line with inflation.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn appeared in a short video pledging his support for campaigners, while Green Party deputy leader Amelia Womack took to the stage to back demonstrators.

The NUS has called on students to boycott the National Student Survey – an annual census the union claimed will allow the Government to hike tuition fees further.

The union’s vice-president for higher education, Sorana Vieru, told the crowd: “This huge upheaval of higher education is not about the needs of students, but about the needs of businesses.”

Activist Owen Jones also spoke, saying: A society that fails to invest in education, that fails to invest in young people, fails to invest in its own future.”

He accused the Government of “vandalism on an industrial scale”.

The Higher Education and Research Bill has its third reading in Parliament tomorrow.