STUDENTS AT universities across England staged a day of protests last week, in an attempt to convince the government to rethink student finance.

The National Union of Students (NUS) organised the “Students in the Red” demonstrations, which urged English ministers to adopt a system closer to that in Scotland.

The organisers claimed that this year’s fees, capped at £3,145, are set too high for the poorest students. The NUS no longer calls for free higher education, instead supporting “fairer alternative funding models.”

The action comes ahead of the Government’s plan to review tuition fees next year, which has led to claims that the cap on top-up fees will be raised further.

Thousands of disgruntled students up and down the country attended rallies, drove campaign buses and displayed banners listing the average student debt figure, which is currently £20,000.

Some students in Liverpool wrote directly to their local MPs insisting the funding system be reassessed.

Andy Welch, president of Durham’s student union, believes that students are being forced to shoulder an unnecessary financial burden.

“We accept that students should contribute to their education, but the whole policy should be reviewed,” he said.

The Durham student union argued that the current system fails to offer financial aid to those most in need - instead support is based on the institutions where they study.

Within the Russell group of leading universities, which includes Edinburgh, the average annual bursary is £1,791, but for thousands of other universities, the average is only £680.

NUS president Wes Streeting described the funding system as “completely unfair” and a “postcode lottery.”

He argued that a national bursary scheme would be more effective in reaching the poorest students.

The government believes that students have not been dissuaded from going to university despite the debt, as many view the cost as a long-term investment.

Statistics from the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills show increasing numbers of applicants. Graduates are not expected to make any repayments until they are earn over £15,000 per year.

However, since ‘top-up fees’ were introduced in 2006, one in three graduates’ earnings are still below the threshold for loan repayments – with around 400,000 yet to begin repayments, in some cases as many as seven years after graduation.

This comes as John Denham, the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills, announced that partial grants for around 40,000 students from middle-income families are to be cut.

This year, the department underestimated the demand for full grants from poorer students, leading to a £200m budget shortfall.