Meanwhile, Prof Rosa Freedman, an expert in international human rights law at the University of Reading, had been told she would be invited to speak at Essex about anti-Semitism. However, after concerns were raised about her gender-critical views, the invitation was not sent.

When the review was published, Prof Anthony Forster, the university’s vice-chancellor, acknowledged that “serious mistakes” had been made and he apologised to the two professors.

Now, Essex has been accused of failing to act on the recommendations of the review and also of misunderstanding equality law.

University’s harassment policy questioned

The union’s pre-action letter explains that the university’s “zero tolerance” harassment policy defines a “hate incident” as one which is “perceived” by the victim to be motivated by hostility or prejudice.

“The university wrongly believes any speech which trans rights activists perceive as harassment is ipso facto harassment and therefore unlawful,” Mr Young explained.

“In fact, for the speech in question to be unlawful, it needs to actually be harassment, not just perceived as such. In the absence of it meeting that test, it is not unlawful and prohibiting it – by no-platforming feminist professors, for instance – is a breach of its duty to uphold lawful free speech.”

Established in 1963, the University of Essex quickly gained a reputation as a hotbed of student radicalism. It was at the forefront of student protests in the Sixties and police were called to its Colchester campus in 1968 when students disrupted a lecture by Dr Thomas Inch, a chemical defence scientist from the Government’s Porton Down military research facilities.

Three students were suspended, which led to further protests and activists voting against the university authorities, declaring a “free university”. The students were allowed back after a week, but the university acknowledged it was “increasingly associated with protest and radical politics” after the events.