The University of Sydney has enlisted former sex discrimination commissioner Elizabeth Broderick to lead a joint task force empowered to clean up the culture of the university's residential colleges, after Fairfax Media reported rampant sexual misbehaviour across two of its oldest institutions.

It is understood the university is considering stripping the colleges of their land if they fail to co-operate with the investigations.

The move to dissociate colleges from the university would be a nuclear option that would pit the university against the college's powerful alumni groups made up of the nation's top barristers, politicians and businesspeople.

The extraordinary development comes after a week of scandal where it was revealed student leaders at Wesley and St Andrew's colleges publicly shamed students who they said had slept with the most people.