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British House of Commons approves university tuition fee rise

09 December 2010 20:12 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. British coalition government’s controversial plan to raise university tuition fee in England was approved by the House of Commons on Thursday, clearing the last hurdle to treble the cap of tuition fee, APA reports quoting Xinhua News Agency.

According to the plan, university undergraduate students will be charged tuition fees of up to 9,000 pounds (14,300 U.S. dollars) a year from 2012 from the current 3,290 pounds (5,200 U.S. dollars) .

The coalition’s majority was reduced from around 80 to 21 as 323 MPs voted "for" and 302 voted "against" the increase.

Thousands of university students demonstrated in central London, the fourth since last month, to protest against planned tuition fee rise as MPs prepared to vote on the plan.

Scotland Yard said six police officers had been hurt in confrontations between police and students outside the Houses of Parliament,

The London Ambulance Service declared 19 people had been treated for injuries, six of whom had been taken to hospital.

The British university students have staged three waves of demonstrations against the planned tuition fee rise in London and other cities since last month, resulting in confrontations with police and arrests.