Students have protested about university funding plans

Students are holding a protest march over plans to introduce university top-up fees.

The Durham University students are holding the event on Wednesday over the proposals in the Government's White Paper on the future of higher education.

The theme of the march is "Taking the shirts off our backs" and the protesters will symbolically remove their shirts at the end of the rally.

The shirts will then be delivered to the Labour Party headquarters in Tony Blair's constituency.

Durham University student union president Ben Wood said: "With this higher funding, the Government is literally taking the shirts off our backs.

"At the end of the march, we are all going to take the shirts off our backs.

Lack of funding

"Then a few of us are going to take them to Tony Blair and deliver the shirts off our backs because that's what they want.

"That's what they are asking for with these proposals."

There are fears among students that the Government's proposals will lead to young people being put off university over fears about debts.

Lifelong learning and higher education minister Margaret Hodge said the fees would not be introduced until 2006.

She said: "The reason that we are going down this route, and it's part of a much bigger package, is that our universities are in a dire state from a lack of funding over a generation.

Reintroduce grants

"We have got to get money into universities."

She said the Government was putting money in, but it needed to get more from individuals.

She said there were a range of other measures to support students including reintroducing grants from 2004 and only four out of 10 students currently pay a contribution to their fees.

She also said they were getting rid of upfront fees so no one would be asked to pay before university.