Student activists are holding a mass meeting to discuss a plan of action against university top-up fees.

Among the options being considered by the National Union of Students are a shutdown of higher education, a national petition and a postcard-sending campaign.

More than 300 officers will take part in the debate at the University of London.

MPs and senior educational figures will hold a question-and-answer session.

	:	In pictures
Students speak out on fees

NUS president Mandy Telford said: "The feeling is still very strong among our members. We are angry about top-up fees.

Still angry

"It's going to be much harder for students, who will be saddled with debt if the higher fees come in."

Under the government's scheme, the maximum a university can charge for a year's course fees will rise from �1,100 to �3,000.

This is expected to increase the average graduate debt to around �15,000, with the NUS forecasting some may face as high a figure as �30,000.

It's going to be much harder Mandy Telford, NUS

But the government says this is necessary to improve teaching and research, allowing universities to compete with those abroad.

Its aim is to get "towards 50%" of young people entering higher education by 2010.

Under the proposals, maintenance grants of up to �1,000 a year will return for the poorest students.

Ms Telford said: "The grant coming back is a good thing. But �1,000 will not help many people at all. We are still angry.

"One of our options is to encourage all NUS members to write to the Department of Education and Skills to make their opinions known. We have quite a few possibilities open to us."

In a letter to the Guardian newspaper on Monday, a dozen Labour MPs elected in 2001 urged the prime minister to abandon plans to allow universities to charge top-up fees.

They called on the government to publish details of its assessment of a graduate tax, the alternative option believed to have been favoured by the Chancellor, Gordon Brown.