STUDENTS joined a national day of action to protest about the coalition Government’s plans to scrap the Educational Maintenance Allowance (EMA).

The protests come ahead of a Commons debate and vote later today.

A number of students gathered outside Middlesbrough College, in Middlehaven, Middlesbrough, some dressed in uniforms which represented their respective courses.

Rebekah Hudspeth, 18, from Guisborough, east Cleveland, who is studying health and social care at the college and hopes to be a midwife, said: “I have a 19-month-old son to pay for and if I did not get EMA I would not be able to go to college.”

Ms Hudspeth, who said she used the grant to pay for her daily bus journey to the college, said Government plans to cut EMA and also increase university fees were absolutely ludicrous.

She said: “I want a future for myself and want to go to university and be a midwife but, as things stand, I will not be able to afford to go anywhere.”

Under EMA, which was introduced by the last Labour government, further education students living in households earning less than £30,800 a year are entitled to weekly payments of between £10 and £30.

The grant has been closed to new applicants and it will not be available from the next academic year.

Joe Anderson, 17, from Marske, east Cleveland, who attends Prior Pursglove College, in Guisborough, and is also chairman of the Teesside Young Labour group, said: “EMA is really important and lots of students are feeling very worried about how they will be able to afford to stay at college next year.

“I am concerned that those fortunate enough to have parttime jobs will be forced to take on more hours to pay for basic things such as food and transport, possibly to the detriment of their education.”

Stuart Wesselby, principal at East Durham College, said: “I believe that the Department for Education has made the wrong decision and that disadvantaged young people in east Durham and the North-East will suffer as a result of this.”

Labour MP Alex Cunningham, who represents Stockton North, said: “Ending the payments stacks the odds against those who have the least, but want to get on in life.”

A spokesman for the Department for Education said: “EMA is hugely expensive, costing over £560m a year, with administration costs of £36m.

“Research has found that almost 90 per cent of young people receiving the grant believe they would still have participated in the courses they were doing if they had not received it.”