Britain’s Week of Higher Ed Protest Starts … Now
More than fifty thousand students marched in London two weeks ago in protest against the British government’s unprecedented plans for massive higher aid cuts and a possible tripling of tuition fees. These protests, which saw thousands storm the national headquarters of the country’s governing Conservative Party, marked the first major public demonstration in opposition to cutbacks which are likely to touch every corner of British life.
Britain’s higher education system, home of some of the world’s most prestigious universities, was entirely tuition-free until the late 1990s, but government support has been falling, and tuition rising, since. Under the government’s new plan, annual tuition could rise as high as $15,000 a year.
Adding insult to injury, the new government’s junior partner is the Liberal Democrats, whose leader, Nick Clegg — Britain’s new deputy Prime Minister — campaigned on a platform of eliminating tuition fees entirely. The Lib