Last week Joanne Stuart of the Institute of Directors ‘updated’ her report into higher education in Northern Ireland.

Around 150 students and trade unionists marched in Belfast on 29 January against scrapping the Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) and against higher University fees and education cuts.

Mass Walkout At Galway Fianna Fail meeting

Free Education for Everyone sent in this report:

Emergency Motion passed last night at South Dublin County Council meeting in support of students of Colaiste Brid and Moyle Park.

The 9th of December again saw tens of thousands of students in Britain and in Northern Ireland protest against the Tory's rise in tuition fees to £9,000 a year. The demonstrations are the latest in the rise of the student movement in Britain and across Europe.

Today, Friday 10 December 2010, saw another magnificent protest by the school students of Derry to Save EMA.

The rotten Union of Students in Ireland (USI) leadership have taken another step in weakening the organised opposition to government austerity. On Saturday the 11th of December USI's national council fully endorsed Fianna Fail's divide and rule strategy with an attack on public sector workers. In a statement, the UCD students' union call on the government to “to scrap the Croke Park agreement”.

Thursday’s student protests brought Belfast city centre to a stand still. The protest took place just hours before MPs in Westminster voted to raise the cap on university tuition fees in England to £9,000. In the North, universities currently charge up to a maximum of £3,290.

The sixties saw the development of mass college sit-ins, strikes and demonstrations throughout the world, in Berkeley in 1964, Berlin in 1966-67 and Paris in 1968. Tokyo students were involved in large-scale militancy. British students were first involved in March 1967 when London School of Economics (LSE) students had a sit-in.

SWP member and anti cuts campaigner Gerry Carroll is up in court on the 5th of January. He is charged with committing a Provocative Act, Resisting Police and Obstructing Lawful Activity in a Public Place —charges Gerry strongly denies.

Gerry was arrested while attending the student protest against fees at city hall. Police wish to single him out as an “organiser” and make an example out of him. This is a dangerous attack on democracy.