BBC Education correspondent James Westhead: "Campaigners argue fees put students off going to university" (BBC News 24)

The Stop the Fees Campaign organised the demonstration in support of five students who are threatened with expulsion from the University of Oxford for refusing to pay the £1,000 a year tuition fees.

But before the 2,000 students began the march on Friday there were indications that the students would back down rather than be forced to leave the university.

Laura Paskel-Brown has refused to pay, but is not planning to become a "martyr"

One of the protestors, Laura Paskel-Brown, said "We don't want to endanger ourselves to the point where we are simply becoming martyrs." But she said that so far the protestors had not handed over their fees.

The campaign is calling for an end to the tuition fees and the restoration of grants, rather than the present system of loans.

Jo Cardwell, spokeswoman for the Stop the Fees Campaign, said that students were "angry and dismayed" by the financial burdens, which were particularly difficult for students from low-income families.

But the university showed no sign of relenting in its collection of fees, with Oxford university's registrar, David Holmes, saying that if students did not pay they would be suspended. Allowing any students not to pay, he said, would be "sending the wrong signals".

University registrar, David Holmes, says students must pay

The increasing determination of the university authorities to collect outstanding fees this term has seen the non-payment protest begin to crumble.

At the end of the last term 14 first-year students at Oxford were refusing to pay the £1,000 a year tuition fees, arguing that the fees would discourage university applications from young people from deprived backgrounds.

By the beginning of this term, after another ultimatum had passed, the number of protesters had been reduced to six. These students were then suspended from using the university libraries and computer facilities.

But with the additional threat that their colleges could also suspend them, effectively stopping them from continuing with their courses, the first of the six protestors paid her fees, with the remaining five now appearing ready to follow.