Apocalyptic scenes greeted Londoners last week as student protests hit the capital. Paul Teed finds out how university hopefuls plan to cope with the rise in tuition fees.

“Education should be a right, not a privilege,” insists Siobhan Bellot, student union president at Twickenham’s St Mary’s University College.

As student leaders across the country plan further protests against soaring tuition fees, the indignant 21-year-old explained why it meant so much to her that university education remains affordable to all.

The drama and physical theatre graduate came to St Mary´s from a single parent family in Dagenham, east London, and is worried future generations with similar backgrounds may no longer get the opportunities she had.

Sixty St Mary´s students, along with one or two lecturers, joined more than 50,000 demonstrators to march through central London last week in a mass protest which left dozens injured and led to 59 arrests.

“Every generation gets the opportunity to stand up and say: ‘That’s not right’, and that’s what it was”, says the confident, woolly hat wearing Siobhan.

Much of the bitterness at tuition fee hikes has been levelled at the Liberal Democrats, who pledged against any increase before the election. Rioters are reportedly planning to raid the constituency offices of Liberal Democrat MPs, including Vince Cable’s in Twickenham, as part of a national day of action on Wednesday.

Students have already protested outside Dr Cable’s constituency office, carrying banners and chanting "Vince Cable keep your promises" over a megaphone.

And the MP provoked further anger last week when he said he would “love to be Father Christmas... able to shower money on students” but the country's financial situation made it impossible.

University of London student, Bernard Goyder, 19, said: “He is definitely not Father Christmas, he is more like a Father Christmas who cancels Christmas.”

Siobhan said many of the students who attended the march last week had been first-time voters, and although she disapproved of the violence that followed, she welcomed the revival of passionate student politics.

Matthew Gardener, 20, a second year tourism management student at St Mary´s, said: “I was from a Labour family, and I swung for the Liberal Democrats just on the tuition fees. I fell for the sales technique too, and now we’ve got this.

“Obviously I’m angry with the Conservatives, but I think the Liberal Democrats got most of the stick at the protest because they promised they wouldn’t raise tuition fees, and now that’s happened we feel foolish for putting them there.”

The prospect that universities may be able to charge tuition fees of up to £9,000 a year from 2012 led to students, historically the idealistic conscience of the country, taking part in displays of civil disobedience that have not been seen for more than 20 years, when they marched over causes including apartheid and nuclear disarmament.

Siobhan said: “It seemed students are not as pro-active as they used to be, you read about what students used to do, sit-ins and protests. Students are more subdued and content with saying this is how it is.

“Now they see there’s something they can do and see how big their numbers are and how powerful they are as students, which I think is fantastic.”

St Mary’s students, although they will not directly suffer from the tuition fee hikes, felt a strong obligation to join the march to stand up for future generations, such as those who have just started their first year at Richmond College.

Applying to university can be an anxious time for students and their parents. At the college’s careers centre, many of its 4,000 16 to 19-year-olds face uncertain times as they weigh up whether a university education is worth the burden of debt.

Applicants next year will escape the proposed rise in fees in 2012, but careers adviser Claire Miller said there were signs that students had already scrapped plans for a gap year to avoid having to pay through the nose for a degree.

Darcy Hyland, 18, is in her third year at the college and is applying to read English and creative writing at university next year. She joined the march through central London last week with younger friends who she said were angry about how much they could have to pay.

She said: “I know a lot of people who are contemplating whether or not they are going to go, a lot of people are saying they won’t go because it’s too expensive.”

Seventeen-year-old students Kiara Dunne, who hopes to be a primary school teacher, and Lauren Yerby, who wants to become a children’s nurse, both believe the hike will deter students not applying for vocational courses who are not as sure about the career they want to follow.