The Australian Federal Police has been forced into an embarrassing u-turn on whether or not it advised Prime Minister Tony Abbott to cancel a visit to a Victorian university amid widespread protest against the Coalition's budget last week.

Appearing in front of a parliamentary committee on Monday, AFP deputy-commissioner, national security, Peter Drennan, said the agency did not advise Mr Abbott to pull out of the visit to Deakin University's Geelong campus.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott's Deakin University visit was cancelled just hours before he was scheduled to appear at the campus. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

But late on Tuesday, the AFP issued a statement, ''correcting its response''. In the letter, Mr Drennan asked that the record now ''reflect the fact that the AFP did advise the PMO [Prime Minister's Office] that the Prime Minister should not attend the event at Deakin University due to security concerns''.

The Prime Minister was branded ''cowardly'' by the students' union for pulling the plug on the visit last Wednesday.