Students from Cambridge University and Anglia Ruskin University marched through the streets of the centre on Friday to show their opposition to the government’s decision to increase tuition fees to £9,000 per year.

The students started at Jesus Green and moved through the centre to St. Mary’s Church. Addressing the crowd were leading members of the Cambridge University Students Union and Cambridge MP Julian Huppert.

CUSU has claimed that over 400 students marched to show their support, and the demonstration has been described as attracting a "record turnout."

A spokesperson from CUSU told Varsity, “CUSU organised the rally to show the opposition to the devastating cuts to education funding and to protest against increased student debt.

"We think it was definitely a success, with police saying to us on the day that at the march we had around 400 students protesting and around 200 students for the speakers and presentation of the petition

“Given the weather we think it was an extremely good turn-out, one which is up there as one of the highest student turn-outs in terms of student-union organised protests against the education cuts and fees.”

However, CUSU's claims about the success of the march have come under scrutiny from observers who are disputing the number of people attending the rally.

One third-year student, who attended the rally, said “I don’t know who’s bandying about the figure of 400, but if it's CUSU then they can only be doing it to make themselves look better.”

She added, “There were definitely only about 150 people there, 200 absolute maximum.”

CUSU, however, is determined to continue its efforts to fight against a rise in tuition fees and is working to represent Cambridge students on a national scale.

A CUSU spokesperson told Varsity, “Over 300 students have filled up the six coaches being provided by CUSU at a heavily subsidised rate to go to the national demonstration (on Wednesday), with more and more students requesting seats each day, which has led to us running a ‘Sponsor a student’ campaign to try and get funding for a seventh coach.”

A number of Sabbatical officers have also appeared on regional and national news to ensure that Cambridge’s opposition to the cuts is being voiced.

Andy McGowan, CUSU Access and Funding Officer, has also been to London, where he gained the assurance that Julian Huppert, Cambridge's MP, will keep his promise to vote against any proposed increases in fees.