NICK Clegg was cast as the pantomime villain as around 70 students demonstrated against education cuts and rising tuition fees yesterday.

The Liberal Democrat leader and Deputy Prime Minister was the target of much of the chanting as angry students marched on Durham University headquarters, demanding the university's support for their cause.

Shouts of "No ifs, no buts, no education cuts" and "£9k, no way" mixed with "Nick Clegg, shame on you - shame on you for turning blue", as the protest snaked through Durham from the Market Place to the university's Old Shire Hall HQ with students waving placards and burning papers.

Guy Hutchinson, a 23-year-old new and renewable energy PhD student, said: "These cuts are ideological. There are so many other areas they could cut.

"I think our message is getting through. It's grown from a couple of MPs to a widespread rebellion. We've moved from people saying student protests won't achieve anything to MPs listening and changing their minds."

Dave Barrington, 19, a first year maths student, said: "How would they like it if they had faced these cuts when they were students?

"They would be doing exactly the same thing as we're doing right now."

Amid a high security and police presence, a five-student delegation was allowed through the locked metal gate of Old Shire Hall for a meeting with Vice-Chancellor Professor Chris Higgins.

About an hour later, the protest leaders finally emerged to tell a declining crowd of shivering students a statement was being prepared.

However, Durham University has publicly declined to comment on the demonstration.

Sam Roseveare, president of Durham Students' Union, said: "I'm hopeful that a lot of politicians will see sense and reject this ill-thought through and ill-considered policy.

"This is about the fundamental nature of higher education - whether it's a commodity subject to market conditions or whether we value education for education's sake.

"MPs would have to be living on a different planet not to have got the message."

Further student demonstrations are planned for Newcastle today.