The UCC Students Union is calling for a rent freeze and for publicly funded third level education ahead of next week's budget.
The Government has been accused of ignoring the plight of students at the college after the Cabinet was on campus and didn't meet any Students Union reps.
The SU say they would have welcomed the opportunity to raise the real issues facing students this semester with many couch surfing or living in their cars as they can't afford rents in the city and are turning to Penny Dinners for help.
The Students Union foodbank ran out of supplies within an hour of opening yesterday and a GoFundMe Page launched shortly afterwards raised €6,000 in just 12 hours.
Communications Officer with the Students Union Maeve Richardson told RedFM News that rising costs should not lead to students being locked out of Third Level education.
"We're less than a week away from the Budget.
"We at UCC Students Union are calling for rent reductions, rent freezes, and publicly funded higher education. We cannot keep locking out such a large part of our society from education.
"It's been over 50 years since second level education was made free for all the people of Ireland, and yet we haven't even thought of doing the same for third level education."
