Students should be taught how to spot extremist infiltrators to prevent them from preying on vulnerable young people, according to official guidelines published yesterday.

Radical speakers with a history of inciting racism could be banned from campuses, say the guidelines, and tutors should work more closely with mosques and imams to prevent “extremism in the name of Islam” taking hold. Lecturers should also work with the police, learning to recognise the signs of violent extremism and being more vigilant when students disseminate or preach radical Islamist views.

Presenting the new guidance, Bill Rammell, the Higher Education Minister, gave warning of a serious threat from Muslim extremists recruiting students to terrorism. He insisted that the advice was not about targeting England’s 1.8 million Muslims, but about promoting safety and protecting vulnerable students from bullying and harassment.

Mr Rammell said: “The guidance provides a recognition — that I believe must be faced squarely — that violent extremism in the name of Islam is a real, credible and sustained threat to the UK, and that there is evidence of serious, but not widespread, Islamist extremist activity in [higher education institutions].”

By spelling out incidents that could occur and how universities might deal with them, the Government hopes to prevent more young Muslims becoming radicalised in the higher education sector. It emerged recently that a student arrested for terrorism offences was involved with the Islamic society at his university.

In the past the National Union of Students has adopted “no platform” policies to keep groups, such as al-Muhajiroun, that were accused of distributing anti-Semitic literature off campuses. The Government recently proscribed al-Muhajiroun under recent anti-terrorism legislation.

It has been easy for similar organisations to re-emerge after being banned from universities simply by changing their names or infiltrating and taking over previously apolitical student Islamic societies.

Among colleges where there have been problems are the London School of Economics — where Omar Saeed Sheikh, who took part in the kidnap and murder of Daniel Pearl, was radicalised — and King’s College London, where Omar Sharif, who became a suicide bomber in Israel, learnt his radical Islamism.

In a joint statement with Unison, the academic union UCU and the Federation of Student Islamic Societies, Gemma Tumelty, president of the National Union of Students, welcomed the “moderate tone” of the guidance. She expressed regret that no practical steps to promote better integration had been suggested and feared that some recommendations were “too open to interpretation”, running the risk that some institutions could take too hard a line.

“Furthermore, NUS fears that by focusing solely on extremism ‘in the name of Islam’ that there is the potential for a racist or Islamaphobic backlash against sections of the student community,” she said. “This would be highly regrettable, and could have the effect of blocking channels of communication that are absolutely necessary to detection of terrorism.”

Universities have already begun to take action to counter the risk of their students being radicalised. London Metropolitan University recently appointed Sheikh Musa Admani, a moderate imam and government adviser, to steer small numbers of students away from radical influences.

Universities UK, the umbrella group for British vice-chancellors, said yesterday that it took responsibility for civic safety seriously, but gave warning that freedom of expression was also crucial to university life. “Equally, legitimate opportunities for debate — integral to the purpose of a university — must not be subverted by organisations of any kind that seek to promote violence or to recruit our students to movements committed to violence,” a statement said.

THE GUIDELINES

• Publish student guides on how to spot violent extremists, how they operate and recruit
• Set up support groups with the union, imams and mosques so that lonely and vulnerable students are not targeted
• Encourage students to get involved with volunteer work and local politics so they mix with other backgrounds; promote integration between different faiths and ethnic groups
• Prevent external speakers from advocating violent extremism and ban them if necessary
• Have an emergency plan should a student be arrested for terrorism offences

Times recommends

• Minister sacked over fake degree
• Student grant blunder will hit 80,000 families
• Half of Cambridge students admit cheating