STUDENTS are today presenting a mass letter of protest against tuition fees to Bournemouth MPs at the House of Commons.

They collected around 1,200 signatures from Bournemouth University and the Arts University College Bournemouth (AUCB).

The letters will be handed over to Conor Burns and Tobias Ellwood to oppose the proposed trebling of the tuition fee cap to £9,000 a year.

Yesterday afternoon the student unions of both institutions staged a final push for signatures. They collecting 2-300 names while wearing black ‘Bah Humbug’ Santa hats.

Today, around 150 students from both are travelling to London to hand over the letter, and take part in a demonstration organised by the National Union of Students (NUS), followed by a candlelit vigil at sunset.

Bournemouth University and the AUCB took 450 students to the November march in London that attracted 52,000 students and ended with an attack by a minority of protesters on Conservative Party HQ.

The NUS has now dissociated itself from more militant National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts, the group which organised the November 24 march on the town hall.

Steve Driscoll, a press officer for the Students Union at Bournemouth University, said: “We are hoping that the rally will be peaceful and really well attended.” He said they were not able to arrange a meeting with Mid Dorset and North Poole MP Annette Brooke.

The lecturers union, the UCU, also released research yesterday that said students face a predicted annual tuition fee of £7,147 at the AUCB and £6,641 at Bournemouth University.

The figure was calculated on the current government grant per student, plus the current flat rate and maximum top-up tuition fee, divided by the total number of students at each institution.