AROUND 300 of the region’s university students formed a human “wall of debt” to highlight their anger at tuition fees.
Students from the city’s University of Liverpool, Liverpool Hope, and Liverpool John Moores universities were joined by counterparts from Chester and Ormskirk-based Edge Hill universities for the eye-catching demonstration on the steps of St George’s Hall.
The protest was organised by the National Union of Students in collaboration with students at the five universities as part of a series of national “town takeover” demonstrations.
The protests aim to highlight the level of debt students are saddled with on leaving university, and urging all political parties to end the current top-up fees system, which the NUS fear price the poorest students out of higher education.
Many students already pay £3,000 per-year in fees, leaving university with £20,000 of debt, and the Government is due to launch a review of tuition fees next month which could see the current cap lifted.
And, to ensure their concerns did not go unnoticed, the students plumped for the “human wall” protest – spelling out exactly how much debt is accrued as a result of university education.
Forming layers on the steps of St George’s Hall, every protesting student was armed with a coloured piece of card.
Each student had written on their card the actual or projected level of debt they face as a result of going to university, with the total stretching to around half a million.
They included politics degree graduate Liz Williams, 23, who left the University of Liverpool last year £15,000 in debt.
She said: “I think it is unfair that students are thinking how much university is going to cost them, rather than how beneficial it is going to be.”
The NUS are calling for the current tuition fees to be scrapped.
