Student debt is already at record levels - and will explode now tens of thousands of students are paying fees of £3,000 a year.

Government funding policy is a disaster for students, with large numbers struggling to make ends meet and increasingly forced to take on part-time work. Recent figures show thousands have been put off applying for university altogether!

The demonstration on October 29 was a crucial step in building a campaign to tackle student debt, for proper grants that cover living costs and maximum opposition to student fees.

This is vital because top-up fees are just the most recent stage of the governments' project to transfer the cost of education on to students.

Even with top-up fees that will leave new students saddled with debts of £22,000, universities will still be left under-funded. Already there are calls from some vice-chancellors to allow even higher fees, which the government is considering.

This is not the way forward. We need a campaign that can make the government change track.

In the global economy, where an increasingly skilled workforce is needed, all of society benefits from more students being able to attend university.

Proper state funded free-education is affordable - but the government must change its priorities. A small fraction of the billions that have been squandered on the war on Iraq, or are planned to be wasted replacing Trident with new nuclear weapons could easily fund our education system.

NUS must ensure it builds a strong campaign, locally and nationally, in alliance with our allies in the trade unions, supportive MPs and the public to win proper government funding and resist further attacks on students.

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