Student protests in the UK on Tuesday appeared to be much more peaceful than the previous two.

Thousands of students turned out, but the police kept them in check, and the threat of the group being “kettled” or kept trapped in a cordoned area like last time, caused the protestors to largely disperse.  Last week, a large group of students were held until fairly late into the evening, as police released them a couple at a time, to make sure they didn’t regroup and cause damage to buildings.

The students have been protesting proposed university tuition hikes.  As Europe has raged over the past few months, with budgetary cuts from Greece to France causing angry masses to take to the streets, the Brits have largely calmly swallowed the news of cuts to come—to the tune $126,000

British students have been an exception, and they have come out three times to protest tuition hikes, which are part of the bigger package of making budgetary ends meet.

This week, the cold and the snow may have kept a lot of people off the streets.

Also, there has been a concerted drive from all sides of Britain’s ruling coalition, which is an unusual partnership between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats, to lay out the reasons for proposed university tuition hikes and lay bare some of the misconceptions about them.

Prime Minister David Cameron said, in an open letter to student protestors, “Unlike our predecessors, we won’t patronize the public by pretending there’s a bottomless pit of money we can dig into.  There isn’t, and that means difficult choices need to be made.”

Deputy Prime Minister and Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg has written to student leaders, asking them not to scare students off the whole concept of going to university.  Clegg has been the target of particular ire, as the Liberal Democrats when in opposition has pledged not to raise tuition fees.

Vince Cable, the Business Secretary and also of the Liberal Democrat Party, has said he might possibly actually abstain from the vote on tuition hikes.

But he also points out that the headline about tuition fees tripling is misleading.

“It’s just assumed by some of the student arguments that fees are tripling to £9000 ($14,000) we’ve made it very clear that only in exceptional circumstances will universities be allowed to go beyond the cap of £6000, ($9000) and those conditions are issues we are very happy to talk to student representatives about.”

David Cameron also said that under the new scheme, the paying back of loans will be more equitable.

“No one, I repeat, no one, will have to pay a penny of their loan back until they can afford to do so.  Today graduates start contributing when they are earning £15,000 ($23,000).  Under our scheme, payments don’t even start until earnings reach £21,000 ($32,000) a year.  In fact, many of the lowest-income graduates will repay less than they do under the current system.”

Cameron added that inequality in education is entrenched way before people start secondary school.  Part of the new government’s education reform is to incentivize the country’s best schools to offer places to the most disadvantaged children.

The Parliament vote on tuition hikes is expected before Christmas.