Students

Students stage rally against top-up fees

Most people believe that the new £3,000-a-year top-up tuition fees for university students will put young people off doing degree courses according to an opinion poll for the National Union of Students.

Around 15,000 students from across the country are expected in London today at an NUS demonstration in Trafalgar Square against both the introduction of top-up fees and the potential lifting of the £3,000 ceiling on them, a move which critics claim would produce a two-tier university system with access based on wealth.

The ICM survey for the union, which represents the 2.3 million students at Britain's 161 universities, found that 74 per cent of the public believe the spiralling cost of a three-year degree - now estimated at £33,000 - will deter applicants.

Universities need to return to their medievel roots scholars working co-operatively and independently of the state

Not as technocratic factories producing corporate office drones

The whole idea and purpose of a university has been totally perverted