This from the BBC from London, for local reaction by students click here
Lines of police are holding back thousands of student protesters in central London, in a wave of protests against higher tuition fees and university budget cuts. A police van, marooned in the protest on Whitehall, has been attacked. There have been clashes as police try to contain surges from demonstrators. Students are staging occupations at universities including Royal Holloway, Plymouth, Birmingham, London South Bank, UCL and UWE Bristol.
Marches, walkouts and protest events are also taking place at universities and colleges in Manchester, Liverpool, Sheffield, Bristol, Southampton, Oxford, Cambridge, Leeds, Newcastle, Bournemouth, Cardiff, Glasgow and Edinburgh. School pupils have walked out of lessons in Winchester, Cambridge, Leeds and London.
Students are protesting against plans to increase tuition fees in England to £9,000 per year and to withdraw public funding for university teaching budgets for many subjects. A student march two weeks ago ended in an attack on the Conservatives' headquarters building - which has since been followed by 65 arrests.
Thousands of students and school pupils have walked out of classes over changes to university tuition fees in England. The Metropolitan Police have warned they will not tolerate criminal activity, violence or disorder. Protesters in London had announced plans to demonstrate outside the headquarters of the Liberal Democrat party, whose leaders have become a particular target for student protests.
Students have accused Liberal Democrat MPs of planning to break their pledge to vote against raising fees. But after gathering in Trafalgar Square and then marching past Downing Street, protesters have been held by police on Whitehall, before the demonstration had reached Parliament Square. The demonstrations are not being organised by the National Union of Students - and there have been uncertainties about the pattern of protests.
Mark Bergfeld, spokesman for the Education Activist Network, one of the groups organising the protests, said: "We have the right to protest, we have the right to civil disobedience, we have the right to occupy our lecture halls." An anarchist group had called for "roaming marches" to "disrupt business" across central London, rather than a static stand-off with police.
'Wave of revolt'
Protest leaders have claimed that an "unprecedented wave of student revolt is unfolding" - and they say they are following in the spirit of student protests of 1968.
Dominic Casciani, BBC News, Whitehall
There are a couple of thousand students now in the middle of Whitehall, and the atmosphere is far more tense than it was earlier. Items are being thrown and a police van has been abandoned and daubed with graffiti. Some of the students are climbing onto bus shelters and the security barriers around government buildings.
I spoke to one sixth former who said he wanted to be a medical student. Halfway through our conversation, he raised a scarf over his face to disguise his identity and ran with his friend to clamber on top of the abandoned police van. As he ran off he said to me, if this turns violent, you've got to ask who's really responsible - we think it's the government.
Some of the students here are very young, and are clearly enjoying the spectacle. Many are probably on their first demonstration, and found the attack on the van amusing. Generally, older students and lecturers are standing further back, while above us on surrounding buildings, government and office workers are watching from the roofs.
As well as the planned rise in tuition fees, students are also campaigning about wider budget cuts for higher education.
Further education students and sixth-formers are also protesting at plans to remove the education maintenance allowance, which gives low-income students up to £30 a week to help with the costs of staying in full-time education.
The fees protest held two weeks ago in Westminster was attended by an estimated 50,000 students - and ended with a breakaway group forcing their way into the Millbank office complex.
Content from BBC
Community Reporter Lisa Davies went to East Norfolk 6th Form College at the designated demonstration time to see if local students were involved. Lisa is not aware of whether some students have travelled to large demonstrations or not but here is what she found.
My name is Lisa Davies I’m a volunteer reporter for 96ktalkback and I heard about the national walk out day. Pupils at colleges and school’s across the country are walking out of their classes today to protest about the cuts for tuition fees. This is the largest attack on young students for about a decade as the cuts are going to hit the majority of pupils in the cost of their education plans and many may not be able to afford to have the education they want. What is more important than education?
I went to the 6th form College and spoke to some of the students about the cuts, they told me that it was not affecting them and didn’t participate in the walkout.
Good Luck to all the students taking part on your Demonstration Day.
Lisa Davies
96k community reporter
