STUDENTS occupied the offices of Birmingham university bosses yesterday in defiance of a crackdown on their right to protest. 

Free education campaigners eluded security in the early hours of the morning, occupying the university’s Aston Webb Building, where the vice-chancellor’s office is. 

In a public statement the 40 occupiers demanded a retraction of Professor David Eastwood’s comments against education grants, as well as the reinstatement of three sanctioned student activists.