Cambridge Defend Education has set up what they are describing as 'a protest camp' on the front lawn of the Senate House Building.

Angered by the actions and pronouncements of the Vice Chancellor on the subject of a Grace on cuts to bursaries, the protesters have pitched tents and tealights on the lawn in order to show solidarity with the march that occurred on Thursday March 10th.

So far between 40 and 50 people have occupied the Senate House lawn, some waving a banner that reads: 'Vice-Chancellor? No. Dictator', in an attempt to keep up momentum against the University's decision to reject a debate of the Grace on bursaries despite receiving six times the number of required signatures to initiate such a debate.

A Cambridge Defend Education spokesperson said: "We needed to show our solidarity with the march that happened today [March 10th] and to send a message to the University that we will not put up with their position on the issues of bursaries". On the issue of how long the protest was set to last, the spokesperson added that, "we expect the protest to last only a day or maybe a few days. We need now to send a sharp message to the University".

According to the Cambridge Defend Education twitter feed, the occupation is a "protest against the Vice-Chancellor's undemocratic refusal of academic amendments which were meant to save student bursaries".

Police have already appeared at the scene of the protest, but have since backed down, mindful of the events that took place on King's College property last week in which two students were arrested and others attacked with pepper spray.

See Varsity's exclusive video of the protest.