Student Disgust - is it justified?

As you read this, it is worth remembering my position; I'm a student myself. I am not especially pro the coalition government, nor am I anti; I don't think it's had enough time to prove its strengths and weaknesses. However, many of my contemporaries are outraged by yesterday's decision to increase student fees to up to £9000 per year. I quote a facebook status: 'David Thatcher, education snatcher. Nick Clegg, just a wanker'. Indeed, £9000 is treble the current rate they pay, but no more than it currently costs to educate a student for a year. In fact, even with the government's funding, universities are making a loss each year whilst improving the education they offer.

Why should the tax-payer and the government continue to subsidise the glorified beer-festival that most students call their degree? Many who have joined the protests are doing so merely as some form of amusement, and whilst I accept that some are genuinely distressed by the decision, I wonder if they've paused to reflect on the decisions behind it, and the repercussions it may have.

The intentions behind the decision are clearly to cut costs to the government and to reduce government deficit. In a time where as a nation we need to club together and ride the rough with the good, it seems fair that students join the belt-tightening too. They will have to pay more, yes, but gradually, and once they have money. In addition, in a democracy we must learn to accept the ways of our government. The coalition came into place, and many people are unhappy with this, but did every single person who complains use their right to vote? Did they all march down to the polling stations, desperate to exercise the right that their predecessors died for? I think not.

Of course, repercussions of this decision are currently unknown, but it seems likely that scholarships and sponsorships will spring into place to encourage the underprivileged to continue their education.  Global Law Firms and Pharmaceutical Companies will doubtless fund the most promising students' degrees provided they accept a job with them upon its completion. Who loses there? No-one.
Others will have time to set aside funds for their children, and it will be a struggle for some more than others. This has always been the case; many don't need to take out a student loan, and no fire safety equipment was hurled at Tory property because of that.  For many it is a priority to get a degree, and so be it, but it shouldn't become a necessity, and it certainly isn't a divine right.

And yet fire extinguishers are thrown at Conservative party headquarters and our Prince of Wales is attacked on his way to a charity event. Who is committing this vandalism? The students that wish the taxpayer to keep on subsidising their education, that's who. And how on earth is that just?