Photo by Kevin Wilkins

Students across the nation took part in a protest over the top-up fee system last Wednesday. The "Students in Red" day of action was organised by the National Union of Students (NUS) to urge the government to scrap its current system ahead of a government review.

Local demonstrations were made in over sixteen cities, with members of students' union's as well as concerned members of staff taking to the streets in a concerted attempt to show support for the NUS and register their dissatisfaction with the system.

Over six hundred students from Newcastle, Durham, Bradford and Teeside Universities gathered at Northumbria University for a rally, following actions at their local institutions.

A giant banner was hung from the Millennium Bridge in Gateshead, spelling out the average student debt of £25k.

In Liverpool, students campaigned via buses on the streets, whilst in Leeds students marched through the town square accompanied by a giant globe and helium balloons.

However, in Portsmouth no action was taken, and there seemed to be little interaction with the issue. "I've never even heard about it" said a second year pharmacy student, Ottun Ajibola.

Steve Topazio, Education and Representation Officer, says that the late start date of Portsmouth University's academic year meant there was little time for him to organise a campaign for action.

"In addition to this, I don't think students at Portsmouth are particularly aware about the topic" says Topazio." "I get the impression a lot of students just accept that they have to pay fees."

"I don't think that Portsmouth is a particularly political SU the main focuses of our students seem to be sport and activities... We do pay £46,000 a year to be part of the NUS, so I would love to see more student involvement in the movement."

The NUS president, Wes Streeting, has slammed top-up fees as "completely unfair", and called upon the government to "stop tinkering with grants and fees every year" and to undertake a serious reform of the entire Higher Education funding system.

Organisers and demonstrators pointed to the NUS report "Broke and Broken" published earlier this year at the Higher Education Summit.

The report was a detailed critique of the current system's failings, and highlighted concerns over the lack of advice and guidance offered to students about their options in what has been called the "increasingly complex and rarefied environment" of Higher Education, forcing students to make long-term and expensive decisions without appropriate and accessible information.

The claim that the current system is financially unsustainable by the government itself was also made.

A spokesperson for the department of Innovation, Universities and Skills responded to the day of action:

"There is no evidence that students are being put off going to university because of a lack of finance", and pointed to the all-time high number of students applying and being accepted to universities, as well as the average starting graduate salary."

"On this figure of £19,000 per year, graduated students would pay only £6.92 per week - though the NUS report makes the argument that "it is unreasonable to expect people from a background of no wealth to consider taking on such enormous debts in the face of huge risks", as well as drawing attention the inequalities between predicted earning powers of different degrees.

At this rate it would also take more than 50 years to repay the entire average debt.

The NUS proposes the implementation of a new bursary system to national rather than local level.

This system is aimed at tailoring financial support to individual student needs, rather than the broader basis of where they are studying.

Currently institutions at the top end have much bigger resources for needs-based bursaries than lower ranked universities - even though more low income students are more commonly represented in these institutions.

For example, the Russell Group of universities can afford to pay out annual bursaries of £1,791 to individual students, but other universities are forced to drop their offers as low as £680.

The difference can be huge when meeting the rising costs of Higher Education fees.

At the moment students at University of Portsmouth pay just over £3,000 a year to study, the maximum it can charge because of the Government cap on tuition fees.

"If the government decide to lift the cap in 2009 or 10 then it could lead to students paying in excess of £6,000 a year - in some cases £10,000", Topazio says, "I don't think a lot of our students are aware of the possible changes, which I aim to combat when I run our own campaign in the New Year."

"Lifting of the cap won't affect students today, but it will affect those in the future and even student's children, so it is important that people get involved and try and stop the government making those changes in the future".