Cambridge University is guilty of discrimination against white, conservative men, an academic has claimed.

Professor Nigel Biggar, whose study on the legacy of colonialism was the subject of protest by fellow academics, said that the institution has done “serious damage” to its reputation and to intellectual freedom by its recent actions.

Writing in the Oxford Magazine, Prof Biggar compared the university’s handling of Professor Jordan Peterson with that of one of its own academics, Dr Priyamvada Gopal.

Prof Peterson, a controversial Canadian psychologist who was briefly awarded a visiting fellowship by Cambridge before having it rescinded earlier this year, was treated in a “grossly discourteous” and “humiliating” way by the university, Prof Biggar said.

At the time, Prof Peterson accused Cambridge of being "unprofessional" after he found out the institution had stripped him of a fellowship when they announced it on Twitter, following complaints from the students' union about his appointment.

Prof Peterson, who styles himself as the "professor against political correctness", came under fire for posing in a photograph next to a man in a shirt with the slogan "proud Islamaphobe".

He has argued for enforced monogamy, pushed the view that men are victims of gender discrimination, and said that the idea of white privilege is a “Marxist lie.”