Universities that allow students to ban controversial speakers could be fined for not preserving free speech, the Government will announce today.

Jo Johnson, the universities minister, said protests over speakers such as Germaine Greer were ‘preposterous’ and the prominent feminist has ‘every right’ to speak.

He will say that the newly-created Office for Students will have the power to fine, suspend or even blacklist institutions for failing to protect free speech.

‘Freedom of speech is a fundamentally British value which is undermined by a reluctance of institutions to embrace healthy vigorous debate,’ he will say.

‘Our universities must open minds not close them. Our young people and students need to accept the legitimacy of healthy vigorous debate in which people can disagree with one another.

Jo Johnson, the universities minister, said protests over speakers such as Germaine Greer (pictured) were ‘preposterous’ and the prominent feminist has ‘every right’ to speak

‘That’s how ideas get tested, prejudices exposed and society advances.

‘Universities mustn’t be places in which free speech is stifled.’

Mr Johnson’s comments to the Times were echoed by the chairman of the Office for Students, Sir Michael Barber, who said it would ‘promote it vigorously’.

The regulator, which will scrutinise student experience at university and employability after graduation, will gain full legal powers in April. Sir Michael added: ‘Ensuring freedom of speech and learning how to disagree with diverse opinions and differing views of the world is a fundamental aspect of learning at university.’

Mr Johnson wrote a letter to universities in March saying there was a ‘legal duty’ to ensure freedom of speech is exercised.

It followed research that showed 94 per cent of universities in the UK now have some form of restriction on freedom of expression, up from 80 per cent in 2015.

In recent years a number of high-profile figures have been banned from speaking at universities because of their opinions.

Last year, Mr Johnson’s brother Boris had an invitation to speak at King’s College London cancelled after he wrote a column in The Sun about then US president Barack Obama. Feminist Julie Bindel was banned from speaking at a debate about censorship at Manchester University’s student union because of her ‘dangerous’ views on transgender people.

In 2015, students started a petition against feminist Germaine Greer giving a lecture at Cardiff University following comments she made about the transgender community.

Earlier that year at Cambridge University she told the Cambridge Union debating society: ‘Women are 51 per cent of the world’s population and [I’ve been told] I’ve got to worry about transphobia.

‘I didn’t know there was such a thing [as transphobia]. Arachnophobia, yes. Transphobia, no.’