 Students and U.S.I. members protested the plan for a 4% rent increase of student accommodation in Trinity on Thursday. Starting off at the front square, they made their way to the university's main entrance, blocking students, staff and tourists from entering. Guardi soon arrived to redirect people as the U.S.I. Dublin Region Vice President Craig McHugh spoke to the protesters about third-level education funding. These two students are using students as commodities and cash tax. Higher education has been formed from the public good into their commodity. Less than half of the funding for higher education... Afterwards, we asked McHugh what responsibilities lie on the next government regarding housing. Public care is very, very much. Housing and health topped the issues in terms of the last general election. The next government, the first thing they need to do is introduce a rent freeze and declare a housing emergency. But aside from the government, he said universities should be taking more action to protect their students. Higher education funding is drastically neglected and they like to be RUA, they all want funding brought back into the system. But you can't just say because we've no money we're going to shift more of the cost burden onto students. They should be putting their time and effort into making sure the government addresses the higher education funding app and putting in a plan to address that. But they're not. Instead, they're spending their time in how can we increase the cost of accommodation to fund little polls. In real estate, this will do nothing to help the institution's funding issues. All it will actually do is put students on the ground, kick them while they're down, and that has to be resisted. Alongside Trinity, other institutions are also raising their costs of student accommodation and there's no doubt similar protests will take place across the country. Sanjitudi Newswire.