The British government’s Department for Education and Skills wants campus staff to spy on Muslim and “Asian-looking” students, the Guardian newspaper reported last month.

The Guardian said it obtained an internal document that reveals universities are to be asked to crack down on extremism and staff to inform on Muslim or Asian students who are suspected of being involved in terrorist activities.

The document claims Islamic societies at universities have become increasingly political in recent years and warns of talent-spotting by terrorists on campuses and of students being “groomed” for extremism. While acknowledging that radicalism may not be widespread, it says there is “some evidence to suggest that students at further and higher educational establishments have been involved in terrorist-related activity, which could include actively radicalising fellow students on campus.”

The document identifies Muslims from “segregated” backgrounds as more likely to hold radical views that those who have “integrated into wider society,” and cites what it calls examples of extremism on campus, including suspicious computer use by “Asian” students.

“It sounds to me to be potentially the widest infringement of the rights of Muslim students that there has ever been in this country,” Wakkas Khan, president of the Federation of Student Islamic Societies, told the Guardian. “It is clearly targeting Muslim students and treating them to a higher level of suspicion and scrutiny.”

Britain’s University and College Union also expressed outrage about the proposed measures, warning their members “may be sucked into an anti-Muslim McCarthyism which has serious consequences for civil liberties by blurring the boundaries of what is illegal and what is possibly undesirable.”

“There is a danger of demonising Muslims ... when actually Muslims have made enormous strides in getting more of their young people to universities and colleges,” UCU joint general secretary Paul Mackney said.

“The government’s premise is wrong: radicalisation is not the result of Islamist segregation, but government policy, especially in Afghanistan, Palestine and Iraq. Even so, radicalisation is not the same as violent extremism or terrorism.”