Police stop students outside the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills during a protest calling for the abolition of tuition fees and an end to student debt in Westminster, London.
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Dozens of police officers gave chase as the marchers darted through central London traffic.
Asked about the violent clashes, Hope Worsdale, a spokeswoman for the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts, said the group supported “non-violent direct action” but police had previously used violence against protestors.
Recent graduate Tom Baldwin, from Bristol, told RT he is joining the protest so that future generations aren’t burdened with “a lifetime of debt”.
The Metropolitan police have said here was no containment in place, and later said it made 12 arrests for public order offences.
“I opposed those changes at the time – as did many others – and now we have an opportunity to change course”, he said.
Student protesters hold placards as they march on parliament earlier on Wednesday.
The cash-strapped Met Police will see their resources stretched to the limits as they struggle to control the carnage hitting the city with three prepared protests.
The march also targeted the Government’s plans to scrap the remaining educational maintenance grants for low income families, which are being replaced by loans. The students marched around Central London before passing by the Prime Minister’s residence at Downing Street just before 5pm.
A few protesters using Anarchist-inspired “black bloc” techniques to evade identification by police raided the prospect of a repeat of the violent protests that rocked the capital in 2010 over the issue of student fees. The party’s higher education spokesman, Gordon Marsden, said its policy would now go into a consultation process.
“We are witnessing a major resurgence of the student movement, combining a fight against the abolition of maintenance grants with a positive vision for a free education system: one which is democratically run, with valued staff and liberated curriculums, and where worldwide students are welcomed, not surveilled and exploited”, the campaign group said.
A student from Manchester, Dan, who refrained from giving his last name, accused government of keeping less fortunate students from universities.
“It has always been the case that student support provided by government is a contribution to living costs, and institutions themselves offer a range of bursaries, scholarships and grants”.
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Hundreds of students have broken through a few police cordons and arrests have been made.
