Corridor sit-in 'start of new student protests'

Students are occupying a university building as campaigners warned that a series of protests in London is going to "kick off".

Royal Holloway students are refusing to leave a corridor outside the principal's office in protest against the university's "restructuring plans" which they say will inflict dramatic cuts on courses and teaching staff.

Protesters say 70 students are involved in the occupation and are sleeping in the corridor but the university said this figure has dwindled to as few as four. A building in Bloomsbury owned by the School of Oriental and African Studies is also being occupied.

Michael Chessum, from the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts, said: "Protests at universities are really going to kick off again. Students are demanding that their vice chancellors denounce the Government's higher education White Paper."

Craig Gent, a 21-year-old philosophy and politics student at Royal Holloway, is part of the occupation. The university has officially asked the protesters to leave and started legal proceedings, but Mr Gent said the group was refusing to move. He said: "This is the beginning of a string of protests."

The Royal Holloway students accuse principal Paul Layzell and senior university staff of acting as "flag bearers" for the White Paper. They want Professor Layzell to guarantee that no university courses will be closed, no staff will be made redundant and all students who need bursaries will get them.

A spokeswoman for Royal Holloway said: "The college has asked the occupiers to leave, which renders their occupation unlawful. This action has been taken after the principal spent many hours in direct discussion with them.

"We have 9,000 students, and over the weekend there have been as few as four people in occupation. We hope the occupiers have sufficient respect for the rest of the college community to choose to move on now."