I'd love to know how many of the 50,000 protestors have actually sat down and worked out what the changes actually mean for them, rather than being blinkered by this magic £9,000 per year number. SOme will realize they will actually be MUCH BETTER OFF.
Firstly uni fees ARE NOT going up to £9,000 a year. They are going up from £3,000 to £6,000 and only £9,000 in EXCEPTIONAL circumstances for specialist courses and universities, which will no doubt be unloading students into EXCEPTIONALLY high paid jobs or courses which are fast tracked form 4 years into 2 year courses.
Secondly, you don't pay a single penny back until you start earning £21,000 a year, which has gone up from the current £15,000. How many post grads do you know earning £21,000 a year? Not many.....Probably because the bullshit degree they are lumbered with isn't worth the paper it's printed on, but I digress. This £21,000 a year, after 2016 will increase EVERY year to allow for inflation etc.
Thirdly, the interest rates are practically nothing. Under the new system it would gradually increase from 0% for salaries of £21,000 to 3% plus inflation for those earning more than £41,000. You only pay interest on earnings OVER £21,000 per year. So lets use a rough example:A Teacher leaves university and gets a £21,500 a year job they pay interest on the £500 over £21,000 which is equivalent to 9%. They will pay less than £4 a month in repayments! Let's say it rises to £27,000 over 20 years. They would pay an average of £7 per month rather than the £45 per month that they face now, and less than a TV licence costs.

Am I missing something here?...