Students stage mass protest in London Students in Edinburgh protest in 2010. The NUS is calling for investment in education and employment for young people. Around 10,000 demonstrators are expected to take part in a mass protest in London on Wednesday to express anger at the financial and other burdens facing students. Demo 2012, organised by the National Union of Students will call for investment in education and employment, and to protest at the "shutting down" of opportunities for the next generation. It will be the first national protest organised by the NUS since more than 50,000 people, including many lecturers, took part in a demonstration two years ago, which was marred by violent clashes with police leading to a number of arrests and injuries as well as complaints from students who were "kettled" outside parliament. Organisers expect at least 10,000 demonstrators to gather near the Embankment, on the north side of the Thames on Wednesday morning, before a march past Parliament Square towards Kennington Park south of the river for a rally. The NUS president, Liam Burns, said the Liberal Democrat leader, Nick Clegg, won the trust, and votes, of young people and their parents by signing the pledge, but had lost them "once and for all" by breaking it. He said: "Most parents would like to see him and every other MP who broke the pledge go before they can do any more harm to the next generation. As students gather in London today to demand investment in education and employment, the countdown to the next general election has already begun. Many MPs of all party colours kept their promise, but those MPs who broke their pledge cannot wriggle their way out. They are living out their electoral lives on borrowed time. The NUS said young people were being left with a "sense of desperation" for their futures amid major changes to education and a tough job market. The prospect of leaving university thousands of pounds in debt and facing a scramble for graduate jobs was a major concern, the union warned. Burns said there were strong feelings on campuses around the country about education reforms, the move to treble tuition fees, changes to financial support for students and youth unemployment. Students know they are going to be "tens of thousands of pounds in debt before they even graduate and they know there's little prospect of graduate employment," he said. There's a sense of desperation that people have. They're slowly seeing opportunities being taken away and are powerless to do anything about it. Ministers' decision to scrap the education maintenance allowance (EMA) - a grant for the poorest teenagers to help them stay in school or college - has had the biggest impact, Burns said, while the final outcome of the decision to raise tuition fees to a maximum of £9,000 a year is not yet known. The NUS warned the UK could be heading for an "epidemic of university dropouts," with a study showing that more than two in five had seriously considered leaving their course. Of these, almost half of undergraduates said money worries were a key factor in considering whether to drop out. Roger McKenzie, assistant general secretary of Unison, will tell Wednesday's rally: "Tory education policies are turning the clock back to the time when education was the preserve of the rich. Young people, especially those from poor families, are already being put off going to university by the huge cost. The loss of the EMA has forced many others to drop out of school altogether. Young people, faced with a tough jobs market or an education they cannot afford, are left without options. The effects will be as expensive for our society as they will be long-lasting, but the real tragedy is for those young people robbed of a future. Kathy Taylor, the president of the University and College Union (UCU), will attack the coalition for being out of touch with the needs of ordinary people. "This is a government that does not understand the needs and fears of ordinary people, yet claims we are all in it together," she said. In the first year of this coalition government, the richest 1,000 people in Britain increased their collective wealth by 18%. Over the same period the government introduced measures which increased the number of children living in poverty by nearly 1 million. Most parents with children under the age of 18 would not vote for an MP who broke a pledge against increasing university tuition fees, according to a poll. The survey, covering almost 500 parents, showed that more than three out of five would not vote for an MP who broke a pre-election pledge to vote against increasing tuition fees while almost half believed they should resign.