The University of California has fired a professor who was accused of sexually harassing multiple students, nearly two years after campus investigators first concluded he had made unwanted advances and violated school policies.

The dismissal of assistant professor Blake Wentworth – who sued the women who filed harassment complaints against him – marks a rare instance of termination of a faculty member accused of sexual misconduct at the prestigious public university.

The allegations that Wentworth, a professor of south and south-east Asian studies at UC Berkeley, sexually harassed and inappropriately touched female students he was overseeing contributed to a major scandal, prompting an international debate about sexism and discrimination in academia.

Two graduate students and one undergraduate shared their accounts with the Guardian last year, arguing that Wentworth’s mistreatment of them had derailed their studies and, careers and that the university had repeatedly failed to support them and hold the faculty member accountable.

Attorneys for Wentworth – who filed a defamation suit against the three women in September and has sued the university – said in a statement on Wednesday that the university was trying to distract from a financial scandal, and that he continues to deny the “false assertions, which are a pretext to discriminate and retaliate against him”.

Evidence in his pending lawsuit will show that UC embarked on a “campaign to ruin his career”, the lawyers added.

It’s unclear why the decision to terminate Wentworth took so long. The university substantiated the first claim of harassment against one of the graduate students in October 2015, and the three women filed formal complaints with state investigators more than a year ago.

The university concluded that Wentworth made unwelcome sexual advances against grad student Kathleen Gutierrez, who accused Wentworth of grabbing her hand and saying: “I could lose my job over this … but I’m just so attracted to you.” He also allegedly came up behind her and wrapped his hands around her head and made offensive comments about a strip club.

Erin Bennett, the other grad student, accused Wentworth of inappropriately touching her and making comments about sex during their one-on-one independent study in her first semester at the school. The process of reporting the harassment took a toll on her mental health and led her to take a leave of absence, she said.

Wentworth, a tenure-track professor, allegedly told undergraduate student Nicole Hemenway that she was a “gorgeous young woman”, calling her “honey bear” and saying that others in the department were “jealous that such beautiful young women are always coming and going from my office”.

On Wednesday, Hemenway said that the dismissal would not have happened if the students hadn’t devoted significant resources to fighting the case.

“This firing was our doing. The university gets to put their name on the decision, but they were perfectly happy not doing anything,” she said by phone. “This was because of student organizing efforts.”

Hemenway, 25, noted that the delay in the decision has prevented her from potentially applying to grad school at Berkeley or taking classes on the campus. “There’s no sign that it’ll be any easier for the next set of women who come forward.”

Public records released this year on sexual harassment investigations revealed patterns in how powerful UC faculty target vulnerable students under their purview. Tenured faculty members have typically avoided serious consequences after the university found they violated policies, resulting in them stepping down only after negative media coverage.

“These actions are part of the University’s continuing effort to eradicate sexual misconduct from our campus,” the university said in a statement on Wednesday. “The harassment of students by faculty represents an unacceptable breach of the teacher-student relationship and carries the potential for enormous harm.”

The university said the dismissal, effective immediately, came after the completion of a “standard process for adjudication of faculty conduct issues”, which included multiple investigations, reviews and a hearing. Wentworth was relieved of teaching duties in June of 2016 and had been on leave pending the outcome of the disciplinary proceedings.