Sit-in students take to the streets

The coalition government is planning to increase fees to up to £9,000 a year as part of changes to university funding which include withdrawing teaching grants for humanities and arts subjects.

The protest was organised by students group calling itself Warwick Against the Cuts, which recently held a sit-in at the university campus.

Students Union education officer Sean Ruston said the Warwick and Leamington MP had told students before he was elected that he was worried about increasing fees and student debt, but now supported the Government’s plans to increase fees.

Mr White said he felt the Government’s proposals would be fairer than the current system and fairer than a graduate tax.

He said graduates would only start paying tuition fees back once they were earning £21,000-a-year, and even when their salary was £25,000 they would only be paying £7 a week, adding that claims that people would be put off university by the cost could become a “self-fulfilling prophecy”.