In an attempt to stop students protesting against the federal Labor government's $2.3 billion cut to higher education, NSW police pushed protesters off the road as they marched from Sydney University to Labor MP Tanya Plibersek's office in Broadway, central Sydney.
Julia Gillard's government also plans to increase public funding to private schools by $2.4 billion to $85 billion over four years.
NTEU member and Sydney University academic Raewyn Connell told the protest: "In this respect, the Labor government is not very different from Liberal governments we have known and Liberal governments of the near future. When they seem to be taking even a step in the right direction, they look around for someone else they can get to pay for it.
"And they don't go to Gina Rinehart, they don't go to BHP Billiton. They don't go to the coal industry or the iron ore industry. They go for some other part of the public sector they think has less political protection or less popularity and try to shave it.
"This time they are trying to shave the higher education sector to generate some of the funds for the Gonski reform and they are doing that on the assumption that they can get away with it without political pain."
Photos by Peter Boyle.