by Hayley Johnston
 
Last Wednesday saw another helping of protests from students about the rising tuition fees.

This time round they were relatively calm, compared to that of last year. Police were armed with plastic bullets to prepare for unruly students.

 The universities are planning to increase their price from around £3,000 to £9,000 a year which will increase the cap to £21,000. This sparked outrage first time round, back in November 2010. Many thought the price was far too high, and weren’t prepared to pay it.

The government has introduced yet another change to university; applicants for 2012 will have to get in fast this year in order to ensure a place. University minister; David Millets, has said that by 2012 the extra funding for ’10,000 more places’ that they do, will be cut.
 
This has sparked a fifth of universities wanting to lower the price from £9,000 to £7,500. If they do this, the government will provide money to these universities for ‘more places’ because they are doing so only for universities who charge £7,500 or less.

Now, with universities potentially charging less, would students be more inclined to go if they knew of the potential price drop?
 
Charlotte Wilson, 18, from Kings Lynn says “the price seems fairer to me, because there was just too much of a jump from the previous price – almost double!” Chris Harris, 22, from Norwich agreed; “£7,500 is a good price. I don’t think personally it’s going to affect me all that much, but I can understand how people are put off.” 

Some people however think it’s still too high; Ben O’Connell from Horsham and Matthew Warman, 27, from Norwich say; “£7,500 is still too much of a high price.” (Matthew); “I was considering going to university but not now, it’s vastly too high.”
Catherine Drewery, 20 from Norwich says; “The price is still high, I mean it’s over double from what I would have originally paid – and I’m still not even keen on that!” Hannah Cook, 19, from Norwich backed up Catherine; “It’s still too much of a high price.”