Hundreds of Students are expected to descend on Oxford tomorrow to protest against being charged fees for their college education, writes Victoria Owen.

An estimated 1,000 undergraduates from across the country will also be lending their support to three Oxford students who were due to be expelled today if they had not paid their bills.

Sacha Ismail, of Somerville College, and James Rowland and John Steward, of Pembroke, have already been suspended from their academic work for failing to pay up.

The organisers of tomorrow's city centre protest say it is part of a campaign to reject the Government's policy on student grants. They claim youngsters are prevented from going to university and when they do go to university, the fee system causes hardship. Organiser Anneliese Dodds said: "We need to keep this in the public eye. David Blunkett has just made a number of proposals and there are quite a few debates going on, but we still don't think anything is being done to help us."

Protesters will march along Broad Street, Cornmarket Street, High Street and Longwall Street and return to Broad Street for a rally.

The Grants Not Fees demonstration, which starts at 2pm, will finish with the rally.

National Union of Students president Andrew Pakes will be speaking, together with non-payers Sacha Ismail and Lee Sergeant.

Story date: Saturday 12 February

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