Students in the Republic may think they have problems with fees and grants but, if anything, it's grimmer up North. With no social security benefit or any maintenance grant, plus fees of £1,025 sterling, the students marching through Belfast tomorrow have a lot to shout about. And if the organisers of the protest have anything to do with it, there will be a lot of shouting. Some sources are hoping for as many as 4,000 students from universities and further education colleges.
In an effort to make the event as much fun as possible, students from both Queen's and the University of Ulster's Belfast campus will arrive at the city hall in Northern Ireland's largest ever conga formation.
The NUS/USI northern area convener, Shane Whelehan, says that despite the levity, there is a serious side to the protest.
"The financial crisis amongst the student population is intolerable and must be brought to an end," he says.
Whelehan criticises the Labour government of Tony Blair for adopting "a flawed policy commissioned by their failed predecessors with little though for the practical implications of their actions".
"Debt, poverty, poor diet and a culture of low-paid or part-time work is now the enticement for anyone thinking of entering college," he says.
The march is also notable because of the way in which it highlights differences with the main British NUS line. Some sources in Belfast see the NUS in Britain as being a very "New Labour" organisation, staffed by people who see their future with the party and who are therefore loathe to challenge it too overtly. The NUS has a protest in the Britain, at the end of this month but its aims are limited to the more moderate goals of ending student hardship and the demand for well paid and motivated staff. The NUS/ USI march, however, follows the more uncompromising line of the USI campaign in asking for a free education system, with Government-funded maintenance support for all students, a review of benefits for all students and tuition fees at point of entry to be abolished.
In this campaign, support has been received from the all Northern political parties - "from the DUP through to Sinn Fein," as Whelehan puts it - and they hope that if a new assembly gets up and running it will review student support in the North.
NUS/USI has also begun a campaign to stress the student case to local MPs in person and through postcards.
Whelehan maintains that despite the fact that Northern students are a drop in a three-million-strong student ocean they have a chance. "There are a 100 reasons why the North is different from the rest of the UK," he says.
