5 November 2015
Thousands of students demonstrated in central London. Pictured: marchers assembling in Malet Street, outside the University of London. Photo Workers.
Students from 60 university campuses across Britain converged on the Department of Business Innovation and Skills on Wednesday 4 November to call for an end to tuition fees and debt.
The march was a response to Chancellor George Osborne’s announcement during the summer that the maintenance grants still available to around half a million low-income families would be replaced by loans. A National Union of Students survey found that over a third of these students would have chosen not to go to university without a grant.
The National Union of Students called for students to stand together in the face of “continuous cuts being made to our institutions, our courses and our resources” and for “everyone to have access to quality teaching, learning and assessment, and the opportunity to break the cycle of deprivation”.
The poorest students will now be saddled with £10,000 of debt for each year of their education, followed by low-paid employment for many. The debt will last a lifetime. No use calling for Osborne to “think again” – his ruling class strategy is well thought through. What is needed is robust working class retaliation, not wishful thinking.