Brighton students end art gallery occupation

Students who occupied a building at the University of Brighton for five days have ended their protest over education cuts and higher tuition fees. About 30 students, who began their protest at an art gallery on the Grand Parade campus on Thursday, decided to leave on Monday evening. The occupiers said in a statement they did not want to disrupt an exhibition of students' work for their degrees. The show would have been cancelled if the protesters had remained. "The decision was taken after consulting with students whose work was set to be exhibited," the occupiers said. "Disruption to students was something we wished to avoid, and it became clear that due to the nature of the exhibition our presence would unavoidably have caused disruption." However, they said the occupation had successfully drawn attention to their opposition to the government's higher education white paper and other austerity measures.