Students from De Montfort University and the University of Leicester joined thousands of other protesters in London yesterday to demonstrate against coalition policies, including the increase of tuition fees to £9,000.
The route of the march passed over Westminster Bridge with protesters attempting to reach Parliament Square, which witnessed violent scenes two years ago, but a heavy police presence kept protesters away from Whitehall.
A student from the University of Leicester, who declined to be named, said: "I'm protesting against the rise in tuition fees which is affecting me as a first year student. I'm also protesting against the cuts to EMA which hits students at the lowest end of the spectrum the hardest, and the marketisation of higher education. It's a consumer service and no longer about the student. It's about how to get the most profit out of the university, instead of the best for the student."
The rain-soaked march finished with a rally in Kennington Park. A small section of the crowd booed the President of the National Union of Students, Liam Burns, before forcing him off the stage and occupying it. Others threw eggs and fruit at him. The feeling of frustration at the NUS was felt by many in the crowd, who thought the event had been poorly organised.
Others, though, directed their anger at the government.
Tom Williams, the Vice President of Media Communication at De Montfort Students' Union, said: "My personal reasons for marching, to be quite frank, is that I am annoyed at the government, I am annoyed that students keep getting screwed over. I'm annoyed that 9K fees are in, I'm annoyed there's no employment, I'm annoyed that there's no hope for students. There are people graduating now that are going back to jobs they had over the summer that they didn't need a degree for in the first place, and that is their hope now."
