14/03/2012

Week Of Action Planned Over Education Changes

A national day of action to protest against changes to higher education is to be staged by students in England.

The National Union of Students (NUS) says lectures will be boycotted as students join rallies, marches, petition signings and other events.

The week of action is aiming to show that high tuition fees, hidden course costs and a lack of bursaries are pricing students out of education.

Action will be held at a number of campuses, including King's College and Goldsmiths in London and universities in Sussex, Liverpool, Manchester, Kingston, Brighton, Birmingham, East Anglia, Bournemouth, York and Edinburgh.

The government said students had a right to peaceful protest.

The NUS said it wanted universities to explain the "true cost" of being a student, and for the government to spell out the future of the education system.

"We need a national debate on changes to higher education,” said NUS president Liam Burn. “And this week we will remind ministers that we are watching what they're doing.

"When the government quietly dropped plans for a higher education bill earlier this year, they didn't drop their plans. They simply removed the opportunity for the kind of scrutiny that has been afforded to changes to the NHS.

"Students, parents, lecturers and anyone with a stake in education wants to know what the government and our institutions have in store for higher education, and demand that they come clean."

(H)


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