Rosa Freedman is used to working in war zones with the victims of human rights abuses, so she did not expect to feel unsafe “when visiting UK campuses to give a talk”, she said last week.

The law professor, who successfully defended herself against students’ allegations that she was “transphobic”, has been forced to have a panic alarm and a videophone entry system installed in her office. She uses chaperones on campus because she feels threatened by her critics.

The campaign against Freedman, professor of law conflict and global development at Reading University, has included rape threats, demands that she be sacked and urine poured under her office door.

On some campuses, the atmosphere on some has become so toxic that this month a group