Maltese student among UK protesters

Towards the end of a noisy but good-natured march through central London involving up to 50,000 students earlier this month, a large proportion of the protesters were diverted towards Millbank Tower, headquarters of the ruling Conservative Party. Among them was Maltese student Nicolas Mallia.

“A lot of people started running towards the entrances and going inside the building. When the police came, several people were struck with batons for pushing and some people were stuck inside,” Mr Mallia told The Sunday Times from Kingston-Upon-Thames, where the 19-year-old is studying Film Studies and Spanish.

What happened next made headlines across Europe and beyond, as a minority of protesters smashed the windows and forced their way inside the nerve centre of the senior party in Britain’s ruling coalition. One even threw a fire extinguisher from the roof, narrowly missing police.

“I didn’t go inside, but from what I could see wires had been pulled out from the ceiling and the walls were full of graffiti. Fires were lit and someone managed to plug in a massive speaker system. Many of those using aggressive tactics had to be students, but in fairness that was their way of getting the point across,” Mr Mallia said.

The students are adamantly opposed to the UK coalition government’s proposed rises in tuition fees and cuts in education funding. Mr Mallia currently pays £3,290 (€3,870) per year in tuition fees. EU university students studying in England, Wales and Northern Ireland pay the same as domestic students.

Under government proposals, the cap on tuition fees would be lifted; meaning Maltese students studying in the UK would have to pay up to £6,000 (€7,060) per year, with elite universities permitted to charge up to £9,000 (€10,590) per year.

The threshold at which graduates have to start paying back their student loans – which Maltese and other EU students studying there are eligible for – would rise from £15,000 (€17,660) to £21,000 (€24, 720).

Critics say the higher fees are intended to offset massive cuts in education funding made in the government’s spending review last month; passing the costs on to students.

Mr Mallia will not be affected personally by the proposed changes as they will come into effect from September 2012, by which time he should have graduated. Nevertheless, he is fired by a sense of injustice.

“The protests are completely necessary as without them, students wouldn’t be heard. The tuition fee rise is a joke. It would be much better for students to graduate without having a massive debt.

“Students from working class backgrounds would suffer the most as they won’t have the money to pay up afterwards,” he said.

Other critics say middle class students will be hit hardest, as they will be ineligible for grants.

Mr Mallia was protesting in London again last Wednesday, as part of a group occupying Westminster Bridge by sitting in the middle of the road.

“This didn’t end well as some people, including me, got ‘kettled’ in by police for about 40 minutes,” he said.

His experience last Wednesday was in marked contrast to events taking place in Valletta on the same day, when jubilant University of Malta graduates cheered Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi and carried him shoulder-high outside Castille.

But although university education is free in Malta, and students currently receive extra financial support through stipends, Mr Mallia thinks some Maltese students will continue to study in the UK because a wider range of courses are available.

Meanwhile, UK police, the National Union of Students, political commentators and politicians themselves are warning that protests are likely to gather pace in the Britain as the full force of the government’s austerity measures takes hold. From a student’s perspective, Mr Mallia agrees.

“We need to continue doing this until the (UK) government realises we are not going to give in without a fight,” he said.