Uk Students Protest Fee Hike

LONDON: Students marched through London on Wednesday to protest cuts to public spending and a big increase in tuition fees.

Police said more than 2,000 people were taking part as the march set off with chants of "No ifs, no buts, no education cuts".

Some 4,000 police officers were deployed along the route, which wound from the University of London to the city's financial district. At Trafalgar Square, a group of protesters erected more than 20 tents at the foot of Nelson's Column in the latest spinoff of the Occupy Wall Street protest camp movement.

Annette Webb, an international development student at Portsmouth University, said tripling tuition fees to £9,000 from next year "will price out most students". "It will mean that education is only for the rich and I believe it should be for everyone," she said.