Written by Toby Crockford, edited for online by Keira Wallace

The National Union of Students is ramping up its campaign against plans in the latest Federal budget to slash billions of dollars from tertiary education.

National Union of Students Queensland education officer Stephanie Lang labelled the latest budget as horrific and  Wednesday will hold a National Day of Action.

Her organisation is holding two events in three days to fight the latest plans.

“This is a horror budget for students and young people,” she said.

“They’ve released an options paper which indicated their plans for universities in the years to come which includes fee deregulation still lowering the income threshold for HECS repayments and recouping debt from dead students.”

Ms Lang said the event aimed to take people back in time to the 1970s and features a giant yellow submarine.

“Most of the politicians who are intent on making us pay more for our degrees actually got theirs for free during the period when it was fully subsidized by the government in the 1970s.  That is still possible today,” she said.

Other organisations have also offered support to the National Union of Students’ campaign.

National Tertiary Education Union acting secretary Matthew McGowan said the government had tried to conceal its plans.

“I think the government has attempted to hide its plans in a review which is not going to report till well after the election,” he said.

“Effectively what they’ve done is put most of their proposals into this review mechanism so they’re out of sight for the election campaign,” he said.

Mr McGowan urged students to enrol to vote to ensure they have their say this election.

“University students, particularly those at the early years of their time at university, have got a lot to lose out of this election.  They have to have their voiced heard.  They can only do that in an electoral context if they’re enrolled to vote,” he said.

Wednesday’s demonstration will be held in Queens Park in the Brisbane CBD and will feature plenty of big names, including Labor Senator Claire Moore and Greens Senator Larissa Waters.