This week will see the start of NUS' massive programme of events and activities to mobilise the student vote to take on student fees at the next General Election.

Starting off in Liverpool, we're hitting ten major university towns and cities to expose the enormous unfairness of the current system of tuition fees and to pin down candidates before the election to make sure they're putting students' interests at the top of their agenda.

Within a matter of weeks, the government is due to announce a wide-ranging review of the current 'top-up' fees system that already sees students graduating with debts in excess of £23,000.

Many university bosses are pressing hard to charge students even more! Any increase in fees presents the very real risk of a market in prices opening up across the country, with different universities able to charge different amounts for different courses.

We don't want to see an education system where students are forced to look at the price tag before deciding what to study, where to study or whether to even study at all.

We also don't want to see graduates compelled to race for the highest salaries to pay off mountains of debt; if graduates want to work in the City or in another high paid profession that's fine, but debt shouldn't deter them from pursuing their dreams and ambitions in the voluntary sector, public services or the creative industries.

In our report last year, 'Broke and Broken', we revealed the dire consequences of lifting the cap on tuition fees for access to higher education and social inequality in Britain. Our aim for the tuition fees review isn't simply to keep the current system as it is, it's to fight for a fairer and more progressive system altogether.

That's why NUS published our own alternative blueprint for funding universities, which shows that better alternatives exist.

With a general election around the corner and current opinion polls suggesting a likely hung Parliament, there has never been a better time to pile the pressure on politicians to listen to public opinion on higher education funding.

We know politicians from the main parties are keen to keep the vexacious issue of fees off the general election agenda - that's why these Town Takeovers are so important.

During the coming weeks, we won't just be mobilising the student vote; we will be taking our campaign out into the wider community. We'll be talking to parents, teachers, youth groups, faith communities and other groups to expose the high stakes in this debate and make tuition fees a doorstep issue.

NUS' greatest potential lies in its strength lies in numbers. That means you need to get involved.

The consequences of losing this battle would be severe and irreversible, but together we can win a fairer funding system.

Wes Streeting | National President
National Union of Students