UK: Students to begin wave of occupations

Students are planning a wave of campus occupations and protests in the run-up to nationwide strikes next week. Occupations called by the student group National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts (NCAFC) ahead of the trade union day of action on 30 November have already happened at Birmingham and Cambridge universities, writes Shiv Malik for the Guardian.

Higher Education Minister David Willetts had to abandon a speech on the "Idea of University" last Tuesday night after students heckled him from the stage and began occupying Cambridge's largest lecture hall. Willetts was forced to sit in a corner of the stage of Lady Mitchell Hall, as students read out a prepared statement.

The occupations, in opposition to the government's white paper on education reform, which would formalise the rise of tuition fees to up to £9,000 (US$14,000), are expected to break out across the country. NCAFC said that occupied lecture halls and buildings would act as bases for students to plan further action backing strikes by about three million public sector workers - expected to be the biggest day of industrial action since the winter of discontent in 1979.
Full report on the Guardian site