New College of the Humanities, whose students will pay £18,000 a year, offering courses available at University of London at half the price

A new private university college founded by the philosopher AC Grayling and staffed by celebrity professors will teach exactly the same syllabuses as the University of London, which charges half the price, it has emerged.

Students of the New College of the Humanities will pay £18,000 a year to take courses in history, English literature and philosophy that are already on offer at Birkbeck, Goldsmiths and Royal Holloway for £9,000 or less.

Academics complained that syllabuses listed on the New College website appeared to have been copied from the University of London's own web pages in a move some said amounted to plagiarism. Grayling claimed it would help save humanities education from cuts by bringing together teachers including Richard Dawkins, Niall Ferguson and Stephen Pinker.

"Every university is worried about students plagiarising essays," said Justin Champion, a senior historian at Royal Holloway college, who spotted that the titles of modules he wrote were reproduced on the New College website.

"Here we have a whole degree programme being plagiarised. I feel quite insulted because I wrote a lot of the syllabus. If the University of London didn't exist and public money hadn't been used to draw up these syllabuses, they wouldn't have been able to do this, or they would have had to invest a lot of money."

The New College philosophy syllabus includes: "Logic, epistemology, Greek philosophy: Plato and the pre-Socratics, ethics: historical perspectives, modern philosophy: Descartes, Locke, Berkeley and Hume." The University of London course details use exactly the same wording.

The syllabus for the literature and historydegrees is also identical. Grayling has said that New College students would receive University of London degrees, but the university has since made clear there is "no formal agreement between the University of London and the NCH concerning academic matters".

However, it said it was "legitimate for NCH, as an entirely independent institution, to provide tuition to students of University of London international programmes, as other institutions in London and around the world do".

On Monday David Latchman, master of Birkbeck, announced that Grayling had resigned from its teaching staff, adding in an email to staff : "Birkbeck has no links with New College and no agreement to provide New College with access to any of its facilities."

Amanda Vickery , a TV historian and history professor at Royal Holloway, was one of the first to spot similarities between the syllabuses. She posted on Twitter : "New College of Humanities seems to have ripped off London Univ's international programme in history," adding: "Perplexed to see my own course 'Experience, Culture & Identity: Women's lives in England 1688-1850' at NCH."

Colin Jones, president of the Royal Historical Society and a professor at Queen Mary college, said : "Despite a light scattering of international stardust, this seems to be a somewhat cynical repackaging operation."

Grayling denied the charge, saying teaching would be more extensive, with "value added" by courses in logic, scientific literacy and applied ethics. "It is a complete misunderstanding," he said.

"We offer University of London international programme degrees, so that is the syllabus we are preparing the students for. It is reductive to describe it as repackaging … there is a quarter more content, contact with some rather distinguished people, and preparation for professional life."

Dawkins sought to clarify his role, saying on his website: "This is the brainchild of AC Grayling, not me … Prof Grayling invited me to join the professoriate and give some lectures." He said "the financial inducement was attractive" and indicated he would use the fees to fund his charitable foundation.

"The rates of pay would be comparable for what visiting professors are paid in the US or in Hong Kong," he said.

Grayling also hit back at his critics, complaining he felt persecuted: "My whole record, everything I have written, is turned on its head. Now I am a bastard capitalist. It is really upsetting."

"Private education at university level has been a disaster. Carefully and responsibly we are trying to keep alive something [humanities teaching] that is really good.

"We are not in it to get rich, God knows that is not going to happen.

"Education is a public good and we should be spending more on it and it shouldn't be necessary to do this, but standing on the sidelines moaning and wailing is not an option."

Meanwhile, Grayling said the warden of the 532-year old New College at Oxford University emailed him to query the use of the name.

"We are not sure whether we feel grumpy about the use of 'New College' or not," college bursar David Palfreyman said later.

"We are conscious that there are other 'New Colleges'. Personally, I think this New College of the Humanities is a clever wheeze.

"I am very impressed that they have kept it so secret for so long and they get to use the University of London brand, use their premises and fancy office space."

• The following correction was printed in the Guardian's Corrections and clarifications column, Thursday 9 June 2011. Amanda Vickery was described as a TV historian and history professor at Royal Holloway, when her college is Queen Mary, University of London.