10,000 students will demonstrate protest in London today near the Embankment, on the north side of the Thames, to express their anger on the mounting financial and other burdens, which will be the first national protest organised by National Union of Students (NUS) since two years. Two years ago, a wave of unrest over tuition fees saw students’ violent clashes with the police leading to many injuries and arrests.

Dubbed as Demo 2012, the college students protest will call for investment in education and employment, and oppose the closure of opportunities for the next generation. After gathering near the Embankment, the student plan to march past Parliament Square towards Kennington Park south of the river for a rally.

The NUS expressed concern for the desperate students, who are scared at the prospect of leaving the university with thousands of pounds in debt and having to scuttle around for graduate jobs.

NUS President Liam Burns said that the biggest impact was seen with the scrapping of education maintenance allowance (EMA) by the MPs, while admitting that the impact of hike in tuition fees to a maximum of £9,000 a year, is yet to be known. The EMA was a grant for the poorest teenagers to help them stay in school or college.

The NUS warned the UK could be heading for an “epidemic of university dropouts”, with a study showing dismal figures that more than two in five had seriously considered leaving their course. Among them, almost half of undergraduates cited money issues as a key factor that drove them to consider getting dropped out.

Liam Burns said, ”As students gather in London today to demand investment in education and employment, the countdown to the next general election has already begun. Many MPs of all party colours kept their promise, but those MPs who broke their pledge cannot wriggle their way out. They are living out their electoral lives on borrowed time.”

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