NUS president Aaron Porter has announced that he will not be seeking re-election next month.

Mr Porter had previously expressed an interest in a second term, however, despite claiming that he certainly would have won, he felt that the Union was in need of a "fresh start".

In an e-mail to members of the union he said "after considerable soul searching, I believe there needs to be a new president to lead the student movement".

This shocking announcement comes in the wake of widespread criticism about his lukewarm support for student action against increased tuition fees. One student activist, Mary Robertson, publicly said that he had "admitted defeat before the battle over tuition fees had started".

More recently he was forced to leave an anti-cuts rally in Manchester at which he had been scheduled to speak under police escort. He left Vice-President of Further Education Shane Chowan to finish his speech after he was drowned out by chants from the crows such as "Porter: out" and pelted with eggs.

He has asserted, however, that this animosity has nothing to do with his decision to step down, calling it an "occupational hazard" and saying "I’ve grown a thick skin".

Porter was instrumental getting the Liberal Democrats to sign the, largely meaningless, pledge to scrap tuition fees and in his time in office has seen an extraordinary rise in student activism.

He says that he will step down with pride as "we’ve kick started a wave of student action, brought the coalition to its knew, and we’ve shaped the public debate on education in an unprecedented fashion".

Some however, would resent this claim, and much of the criticism of Porter has come from student activists who feel his role has been far less integral.

As a member of ‘Defend Education’ said prophetically last month "Porter looks upon the student movement as no more than a CV opportunity, to be abandoned as soon as the scrawl of graffiti dares to interrupt his perfect form. The genuine student body is on the streets to which we been thrust by decades of counter-productive NUS bureaucracy."