Cambridge University is embroiled in a row about academic freedom over their investments in BP which have caused uproar among staff including the Government's former climate change tsar.

The BP boss has been accused of issuing an "outrageous threat" to the university - which is currently reviewing whether to keep part of their £6.3bn endowment fund invested in fossil fuels - amid increasing pressure from both staff and students.

Bob Dudley, the company's chief executive, came under fire after telling an industry conference: ""We donate and do a lot of research at Cambridge so I hope they come to their senses."

The comments reignited the row just a week after 350 academics including Professor Sir David King, who was Britain’s Special Representative for Climate Change after his stint as the government’s Chief Scientific Advisor, and Professor Sir Thomas Blundell, the former president of the UK Science Council, wrote an open letter to Cambridge.

“We ... call on the university’s investment office to immediately freeze any new investments in fossil fuel companies, and to divest from direct ownership and any commingled funds that include fossil fuel public equities and corporate bonds within five years,” it said.

Cambridge University has repeatedly clashed with both academics and students over their investments in fossil fuels, part of the largest endowment fund in the UK, partly due to concerns over research funding.