STUDENTS and lecturers yesterday called on Chancellor George Osborne to protect college and university funding.

Fifty students and lecturers at Oxford and Cherwell Valley College in Oxpens Road, and 15 at the college’s Blackbird Leys campus, joined fellow academics and pupils at 90 universities and colleges in a nationwide lunchtime protest ahead of today’s emergency budget.

Roy Bentley, branch spokesman for the University and College Union, said: “Lecturers and students fear the worst.

“If courses have to be cut, then teaching jobs will be in the line of fire.”

Earlier this year art and design courses at OCVC, franchised from Leicester De Montfort University, were forced to close due to funding shortages.

A spokesman for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, said the Government was committed to protecting front-line services for students and learners.