Anglia Ruskin Students' Union

Thank you to all those that made the Town Takeover a complete success!

If you couldn’t make the march CLICK HERE TO SIGN THE ONLINE PETITION

More pictures here 

On Thursday the 26^th November students from Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge University, UEA, Cambridge Regional College and local sixth form colleges descended on Cambridge city centre to raise awareness of the potential changes to higher education funding.

The three hour protest was peaceful and caused no disruption to the public. The route took us right through the heart of Cambridge where we pulled stunts such as the ‘running of the debt’ on Parkers Piece and making a huge amount of noise around the Market sq. These stunts represented how we, as students, are speaking up and making noise about these issues whilst politicians are staying quiet. The protest finished on Queens green where NUS president Wes Streeting, ARUSU President Matt East and CUSU President Joe Farish made speeches which focussed on how to take further action beyond the march. We’ve already sent a strong message to the politicians through this nationwide campaign and showed that by asking MPs to sign a pledge not to raise tuition fees we can name and shame those who refuse. Anne Campbell lost her Cambridge parliamentary seat four years ago because she didn’t support a similar pledge. MPs now understand that the 7million UK students represent significant voting power, and tuition fees are the most critical policy affecting students.

Public support was felt throughout the day with motorists sounding their horns and pedestrians happily accepting the campaign publicity. Matthew East (ARUSU President) said he was “very happy with the support from students and the community from across the region” and “students voting power was crucial to the governments decision on this matter”. Wes Streeting, NUS President, added that we don’t want higher education to mean that “the rich get the best and the poor get the rest” which, depending on the government’s decision about a rise in tuition fees to £7,000, would sadly be the case.