Thousands of students gathered yards away from Parliament. Their protest, which included large bonfires, the throwing of smoke bombs, resulted in a mounted charge on the crowds from police. Scenes of violent hatred and resentment starkly contrasted against the calm and lengthy debate inside the House of Commons, which concluded as the bill on tuition fees was passed by 21 votes. The bill, which will allow Universities to raise tuition fees to a maximum of £9,000, has been consistently opposed by many students, unions and socialist and anarchist groups. While the government has argued that increasing loan allowances to match the raised fees and delaying repayments until people are earning £21,000 will prevent the alienation of poorer families, many feel the move will still result in “education for the rich”. Today’s march marked the culmination of a series of protests and occupations conducted by students around the country. The NUS are calling for a 'National Day of Action’ in response on December 13, with President Aaron Porter stating that 'our protests and our work have sparked a new wave of activism which will grow stronger by the day. As they come for the education maintenance allowance, as they seek to raise interest rates on our loans and as they peddle lies about fairness we will expose their betrayal. I am incredibly proud of the student movement today and we stand ready to fight the next stage of this campaign together. Our future is at stake." There is a particular worry that the quality of education will become distinctly elitist: as ‘better’ Universities will be able to charge up to £9,000, despite a basic upper threshold of £6,000, speculation is rife that poorer students will opt for less prestigious degrees to save money. Today’s protest, originally intended to be peaceful, was marked by outbreaks of violence. Eight policemen were taken to hospital and an unconfirmed number of demonstrators sustained serious head injuries. Three protestors were arrested, two for assaulting police officers and one for drunken disorderliness. The violence seemed to begin as the police began hemming in protestors near Parliament Square in attempts to control the violence. As one protestor, Josh Ferguson, aptly put it: “Kettles tend to boil over”. Though Metropolitan Police representatives stated police actions were in response to the violence of protestors, many have argued that the violence was in fact precipitated by the police, who at around 4pm mistakenly instructed protestors that they would be able to leave through the back of Parliament Square, where they were then kettled. Although police were the victims of thrown missiles, including paint bombs and billiard balls, students suggest that the use of mounted police on crowd was an unprecedented and disproportionate reaction. The mounted division charged at the crowd several times from a distance of about three feet, something the Metropolitan Police rarely do. Despite this, protestors still managed to reach Parliament Square and broke police lines  in several places, even setting up a bonfire within metres of the Houses of Parliament where the debate was taking place within.

6 Tories and 21 LibDems voted against the government, including Cambridge MP Julian Huppert. Two LibDem MPs, Jenny Wilott and Michael Crockart, have resigned their positions in protest. The issue has also highlighted faultlines and divisions within the Liberal Democrats, created by its coalition compromises. Some suggest that Nick Clegg’s failure to convince certain members of his party of the efficacy of the rise in tuition fees will seriously undermine his leadership. Ed Miliband said he is hoping to “learn from the Lib Dem’s mistakes” when making election promises in order to capitalise on growing disillusionment with the coalition government. It remains to see whether the increase in tuition fees will fuel or demoralise the increasingly cohesive and vocal student activism around the country.