ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the causes and primarily the consequences of the unrest in England regarding the contested higher education policy changes after the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government came to power in May 2010. England has ninety publicly funded universities that operate within a higher education (HE) system that has changed considerably over the past two decades. Resistance consisted of various types of dynamic direct action: occupations, sit-ins, teach-ins, teach-outs, vigils, flash-mobs, civil swarming, etc. Demonstrations and marches were organized across the country to coincide with the parliamentary debates on changes to university tuition fees and to harness political opportunity. The winter 2010 protests raised public awareness of the coalition's higher education policies, but also of their public spending cuts and austerity measures more generally. Some activists, who felt inspired by the scale of the student-led protest, depicted it as the start of social change and a broader 'revolution' against capitalism.
