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Thousands of students are expected to hit the streets of London tomorrow in the latest protest against increased tuition fees. Whilst a number of leading academics lend their support, the police are preparing for the possibility of violence.

Following last year's announcement that tuition fees are to increase to a maximum of £9,000 a year from 2012, unrest has never been far from the surface. Hundreds of thousands of students have joined marches and protests, most notably in November and December last year when a number of largely peaceful protests erupted in to violence.

Academics' Support

After several months of little public action, the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts has organised a new protest for tomorrow. Up to 10,000 students are expected to gather at the University of London Students' Union before marching to the City- London's financial district. Over 70 academics from institutions across the country have given their backing in an open letter to the Guardian newspaper, stating:

More than 450 colleges in the UK have been banned from teaching foreign students, as part of new visa restrictions introduced by the government. As part of a plan to reduce immigration to the UK, there has been a crack down on bogus colleges set up simply as a way to for fake students to get visas.

For years there have been hundreds of colleges offering internationals an easy way into the UK through fake courses that allowed them to claim student visas. However, earlier this year the government announced that this abuse of the immigration system was to be put under scrutiny.

Licences Revoked

Of the 450 colleges affected so far, almost 400 of them failed to register with the new inspection system and so lost the privilege of recruiting international students. The rest either had their licences revoked or suspended due to a variety of misdemeanours. Common problems were colleges that were unable to show records of student attendance, or that they had checked the students' qualifications. However, one college could not even provide a list of enrolled students or a timetable of classes.

You may think that today is the 1st of November, but you'd be wrong. It is actually the 1st of Movember. For, you see, over the next month thousands of men across the world will be refusing to shave their top lip in a bid to grow the biggest, most ridiculous moustache, all in aid of charity.

Global Phenomenon 

It all started back in 1999 when a group of Australian men came up with the idea. After growing in popularity faster than anyone could have expected, it was taken over by the Movember Foundation charity in 2004. Since then, it has become a truly global phenomenon, and so far more than 1.1 million people have taken part, raising an incredible £106million overall. The money all goes to raising awareness and funds for men's health issues, such as prostate cancer and depression.

Movember has gone from strength to strength in the UK and last year 120,000 people helped raise £11.7million simply by growing hair on their top lip.

The Rules

The full rules, as detailed in the ‘Movember Manifesto' are:

With Halloween on Monday, there are loads of special spooky events happening across London this weekend. Whether you prefer to scare yourself with horror films, dress up and go partying or have a hands-on haunted experience, there will be something for you. Here we bring you some of the most terrifying-ly good (see what we've done there?) events in the Capital:

As new figures show that university applications for next year are down by 9%, a number of universities reveal they are considering dropping their fees to under £7,500.

Ever since the British government announced that university fees would be capped at £9,000 rather than £3,000 from 2012, experts have been predicting reduced student numbers. This theory has now been proven, with the latest figures from UCAS showing that overall university applications are 9% below last year's level.

However, whilst this headline figure shows a drop in applications overall, overseas applications have actually increased since this time last year. Whilst UK and EU students will be paying far more than previously, non-EU international fees have not significantly increased. This then explains why UK applications have dropped by 12% and international applications are staying strong.

Dropping 2012 Fees

Universities UK have been quick to challenge the figures, with chief executive Nicola Dandridge emphasising that "It's too early to read into these figures at the very start of the applications process". Despite this though, a number of universities are considering dropping their planned fees to attract more students.