everyone knew there would be cuts and times would be hard,
but i think the main issue of contention lies with Nick Clegg who ran round the universities making promises and making a huge deal out of signing a pledge he had no intention of honouring.
the students were probably a bit idealistic to realise that any politician whose lips are moving is lying his arse off, and in return the libs cornered the university student votes.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/nov/12/lib-dems-tuition-fees-clegg
A month before Clegg pledged in April to scrap the "dead weight of debt", a secret team of key Lib Dems made clear that, in the event of a hung parliament, the party would not waste political capital defending its manifesto pledge to abolish university tuition fees within six years. In a document marked "confidential" and dated 16 March, the head of the secret pre-election coalition negotiating team, Danny Alexander, wrote: "On tuition fees we should seek agreement on part-time students and leave the rest. We will have clear yellow water with the other [parties] on raising the tuition fee cap, so let us not cause ourselves more headaches."
The document is likely to fuel criticism among Lib Dem backbenchers and in the National Union of Students that the party courted the university vote in the full knowledge that its pledge would have to be abandoned as the party sought to achieve a foot in government. Within a month of the secret document, Clegg recorded a YouTube video for the annual NUS conference on 13 April in which he pledged to abolish fees within six years.
"You've got people leaving university with this dead weight of debt, around £24,000, round their neck," the future deputy PM said in the video.
Clegg also joined all other Lib Dem MPs in signing an NUS pledge to "vote against any increase in fees". The leaked document showed that during the preparations for a hung parliament the Lib Dems still intended to fulfil that commitment.