Founded in 1901, Harper Adams is ranked fourth in the UK for agriculture and forestry degrees and appointed the Princess Royal as its first chancellor 11 years ago. Buckingham Palace declined to comment on the investigation.

All five students interviewed for the university’s internal investigation said they witnessed students being “whipped” by fellow students during rugby club events.

Two said they witnessed the alleged incident sexual including one who claimed she was also sexually assaulted.

The student who first made the allegations, referred to in official documents as Student X, said she reported the social incidents to university officials out of concern that they were “becoming dangerous”. She claimed the “horrific” acts were simply dismissed as “tradition” and “a rite of passage”.

Minutes of a meeting between university staff and the student’s father revealed that the family had made allegations of “widespread and widespread physical violence against students by their older peers as part of their initiation ceremonies”.

Student X alleged she was sexually assaulted by a player from the university rugby team during a “pimps and whores” night at a local pub, according to West Mercia Police reports.

‘Sexual assault on peers with wine bottle’

The student also told Harper Adams that he had seen three of his friends being sexually assaulted with a wine bottle as part of a ritual that took place on trainers returning from rugby matches. Another student who gave evidence to the university’s inquest said he had witnessed the ritual taking place “about four times”, while two others said they were aware of the practice but had not seen it themselves.

Student X also claimed that his friends at the rugby club had twice put out cigarettes on his body and on one occasion “four or five cigarettes were put out on his back”.

Rugby players were also accused of forcing their young peers to drink from the “Baby” – a bucket filled with alcohol and “bodily fluids” including vomit and urine. Pupil X claimed he was forced to drink several pints of this by his peers during rugby club socials, which made him ill.

Other allegations made during the investigation include one student being hospitalised after animal marker was sprayed in his eye, another suffering burns to his head after hot curry sauce was poured on him and another being “stripped naked and abandoned in unknown locations”.

West Mercia police launched an investigation into a number of allegations made by Student X but later dropped the case due to insufficient evidence.

Student X claimed that she was subjected to physical and sexual assaults for six months, after which she was forced to transfer to another university.

His father told The Telegraph that the incidents had been “and continue to be traumatic for the whole family” and that his son now suffered from “anger, insomnia and night terrors from his treatment at Harper Adams”.

‘The most extreme activities in club memory’

It is the latest in a series of reports of dangerous and abusive behaviour during initiations for university sports clubs, many of which centre around rugby teams and agricultural universities. Harper Adams has previously been accused of enabling a culture of overt racism, sexism and bullying against students on campus, and said it was investigating it.

In 2016, a first-year student at Newcastle University died after ordering a triple vodka shot with 100 shots during a pub crawl initiation ceremony. In 2019, students at Loughborough University’s women’s hockey club reported being fed dead maggots and dog food as part of their initiation ceremony.

Universities UK, which represents more than 140 British universities, published guidance in 2019 warning of the risks of initiations but stopped short of calling for them to be banned altogether.

Following an investigation into Harper Adams, the university admitted that “a number of students have been subjected to harassment at social events (in recent years)”. The documents said a select group of rugby players who had left the university were responsible for “some of the most extreme activity in the club’s memory”.

Some of the perpetrators were identified by Harper Adams as fourth-year students at the time of the alleged incidents. The university said it chose not to take further action because they were graduating when the investigation was launched, more than a year after Student X’s initial complaint.

‘Prevent incidents from happening again’

The university also said they would continue to allow sporting events to take place because they were concerned that banning events would “push problems underground.”

A spokesperson for Harper Adams University and the students’ union said the allegations were “shocking and upsetting to everyone involved”.

“Our concern for (Student X) is immense and they have been involved in the actions taken by the university at every stage,” they said. “We know we cannot change history, but we are determined to prevent the events from happening again.

“Our leadership team has been adamant that the types of behaviors described in the report are not welcome here, but students who are open to positive change and making a difference are.”

The university stated that it did not accept that students’ bad behavior was presented as “mere tradition” and that the vice-chancellor had taken positive steps in this regard.