The provost of University College London (UCL) has rejected suggestions the Christmas Day airline bomb suspect was radicalised while studying at the institution.

Malcolm Grant spoke out as he announced a review into Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab’s time at UCL.

Abdulmutallab, 23, is at the centre of a major terror investigation on both sides of the Atlantic after allegedly attempting to detonate a powdery substance on a flight from Amsterdam as it prepared to land in Detroit with 280 people on board.

The Nigerian, now known as Umar Farouk, studied an engineering degree at UCL between 2005 and 2008, and was Islamic Society president from 2006 to 2007.

In an opinion piece on the Times Higher Education website, Mr Grant condemned the attempted airline attack, saying had it succeeded, it would have been “an act of terrorism causing mass murder on an appalling scale”.

But he said reports that Abdulmutallab must have been radicalised during his years at UCL were a “spectacular insinuation”, without any evidence.

He also condemned reports suggesting UCL was “complicit” in the radicalisation of Muslim students and failed to prevent extremists from giving lectures on campus.

Mr Grant wrote: “Once the wider issues around his views became known, the invitation was swiftly withdrawn by the students and the event did not take place. I might add, however, that had that not occurred I would have intervened because the invitation had not been issued in accordance with our Code of Practice for freedom of speech on campus, which reflects the obligations imposed upon us by the Education (No 2) Act 1986.”

But Mr Grant insisted that the university will continue to guarantee freedom of speech to visiting speakers.

Announcing a full independent review of Abdulmutallab’s time at UCL, he said if any evidence emerges of “a wider malign impact on him or by him, we shall certainly take appropriate action”.