Shocking scenes. They should be working at night to help themselves pay their way through uni. It's disgusting, no way can their actions be defended.

cant believe there was only 34 arrested,thought the coppers where to soft meself.

you will proberley find that other groups joined in or started the rioting, eg. English Defense League, The Wombles and The Walthamstow Anarchy group (dont laugh, they do exist...)

These students literally are thick. I'm all for a good riot and demonstration, but these idiots put their faith in politicians, and now they realise, like the rest of the country did years ago, that politicians are nothing more than self-serving greedy pigs. To distance themselves from the anarchists, they should have staged a sit down protest. The next thing they should do, is boycott lessons and not to enrol for next year.

But what right, do these idiots think they have a god-given right to a free education. They get that by law from the ages of 5-16, why should I pay for someone to learn dress design, art, media, politics or some other mickey mouse course that is not going to serve the public anything whatsoever. doctoring, nursing, teaching etc, that will serve me and the country a purpose, fair enough, I'll gladly pay for that. And looking at the spelling on some of those placards, reckon some of them should go back to primary school.

The students are revolting.

I suppose it is a difference of opinion. I personally think that there should be free university education. I also applaud the students for coming out in force and letting their voice heard. It would be extremely foolish to assume that the 34 people arrested should be the face of the protests. It is a sad fact of the time that the trouble makers should be the ones thrust into the limelight.

There is a difference between not entirely trusting a politician and being conned on the single part of the manifesto they were elected on. They promised there wouldn't be a rise in university costs and within a year they have rescinded the promise. I can whole heartedly understand the anger. This is magnified when there is going to be cuts to university pay from the government. To take an example from this week's PMQs Wolverhampton university's funds will be cut by 85% by the government and fees will rill rise by 3 grand (at least- could be six)

As I have said i think that education is a right and not a privilege. In that respect i think that university education should be free. I am a student but i don't feel that has affected my decision overtly. Scottish nationals have free education and the tuition fee/ top up fee has only been introduced in the past decade. I think that students feel they are being forced to pay off a debt they didn't rack up. It is unfair. Additionally this will provide more stress on the state in the short term. It just seems like a mistake.

i personally can't imagine 30+ grand. Never mind spending that on something i see as a right. I may be in the extreme in my views on university costs but it is still in many people's view a massive hike for less quality.

Free education is a right between the age of 5 and 18 (if you choose to do a levels).

University should not be free, courses that serve the public such as teachers, doctors, dentists should be very heavily subsidised by the government.

All other courses where the student expects to leave and start in a better position than a school leaver going straight to work at 16 or 18 should be paid for.

All of these stupid courses like the study of David beckham etc that we have all heard about should be scrapped.

Agree with pretty much all you say Geordie (apart from the subsidies to Doctors/Dentists. These are going to be on EXTREMELY good salaries when they graduate).

Certainly, by the age of 18, you are old enough to make a decision of
a) do I work, or
b) do I further my education, so that I increase my job prospects, so I end up getting a higher paid job when I've graduated.

If students answer b, then they should expect to pay for their extra education (as THEY will benefit for possibly the next 40 years with their "better" salaries). At the moment, students want to "have their cake and eat it", which, under the current global financial situation, cannot occur.

Imo, University in the last decade or so has become "the thing to do" with the attitude of "well, all my mates are going to Uni, so I want to as well" without the thought of "do I actually NEED to go to Uni"

I was listening to a radio quiz the other week, when the contestant was asked what's going on in their lives, to which they replied "I've just taken my daughter to get settled in at Uni"
"Oh really, that's nice, what's she studying"
"Dressmaking"
you could hear the tumbleweed for a couple of seconds.

Why does this girl feel the need to upsticks 100's of miles from her home, pay rent, living expenses as well as tuition fees, to do a course which must have a handful of hours a week, to put herself (and possibly her parents) in ridiculous unnecessary debt, all to say, I've had a life experience at Uni. Couldn't she have gone to nightschool/learned on the job???

If you want to better yourself (and fair dos to people who do), you've got to be prepared to pay for it.

The violence is being organised by small groups, students are involved in them, but they are using the presence of mass protest to cause some headline grabbing incidents of violence and make it look like this is mass rebellion against the state.

The agenda from these groups is a form of electoral terrorism against the Tories. They don't much like Labour either and were always protesting against Blair over Iraq and tuition fees and PFI and so on but they largely used annoyance tactics in those days and kept within the law. Now that there's a Tory government they want to create a constant stream of social unrest like in Thatchers day with Brixton riots, the miners strikes, the Poll Tax and so on, so that it creates the impression that Tory governments just bring chaos on the streets.

The students have also latched on to the fact that Nick Clegg said in the election that the Tories proposed cuts would lead to "Greek style social unrest" so they are trying to make sure that Clegg comes to regret being proved right.

The government and the police have got a serious problem on their hands now because if they don't clamp down in ways that would formerly have been seen as unacceptable, these groups are not going to go away, they will be relentless in using every opportunity available to cause some violence. At some point there will be a casualty - either a police officer will be killed or a bystander involved in the protests, and that will change the rules of the game significantly.

In my view the issue is that the target of having 50%+ of school leavers go on to higher education is completely unrealistic and unnecessary to develop the UK economy. We must remember the figure was 14% in 1970 and completely affordable to the state.

I feel extremely grateful that my University education was paid for by the state together with a maintenance allowance.

A big responsibility for this must lie on the shoulders of President Blair. Just an excuse to keep the unemployment figures down for school leavers/young adults.

Simple fact remains, a huge amount of people are going to University who don't need to.
Maybe some of the students should be venting their ire against some of their own, who are using up money doing low rate degrees

Do we need hoards of young adults going to Uni to read Media Studies. They all can't brew-up for Chris Evans/Steve Wright/Huw Edwards (yes I know it's not the greatest analogy in the world, but...)

Add this to the plethora of people doing....ology degrees in the last decade or so. Small wonder the education system is on it's knees.

I was a student and graduated in 2007. I did Sport Science and English Language combined. I don't regret going to Uni but I wouldn't recommend it either. I am now in a decent paid job which I didn't need my degree for.

As others have said Doctors, Dentists, Lawyers, Teachers etc are worthwhile degree's but its got to be all or nothing. I don't think University should be free but have realistic tuition fee's. I was only in lectures for about three hours per week when I was there, nowhere near warranting the tuition fee I was paying.

Riot! & riot again... Just like the old days! If you don't want to be lied to, don't vote LibDem expecting something new!

Fuck 'em. In fact 'em then send them on training courses for mechanics, bricklaying, plastering etc which is what the country is short of.

Last thing we need is thousands more shisters doing a degree in media studies, bitching that "coz me course has gone up I can't get meself faced on diamond white as much as I usta".

hmm work at night to pay for uni! i thought higher education was to try get people in to jobs. highering uni prices is pointless as now lesss people are going to go to uni which wil mean that less people will be qualified for jobs. what will end up people with less money as no jobs aiding the current situation the country is in.

lib.dems are a joke they promise that they won't rise uni prices in which they recieve a good vote and alot from student to get them in position to get any sort of power and now they chuck it back in there faces. i back the protests made by students but not the violence within it.