It was the start of a new term at the University of Edinburgh and Mariangela Alejandro couldn't wait to take her next course. The 21-year-old history and politics student had heard good things about the professor, Tim Hayward.
But a few weeks into the course, she said things started to get "weird".
"He goes from talking about global financial markets [and] poverty, into this realm of conspiracy theories about [Syrian President Bashar al] Assad and Russia," she told the BBC's File on 4.
In a lecture obtained by the BBC, Prof Hayward outlined an argument that the renowned aid organisation, the White Helmets, may have helped fake a chemical attack in Syria. Russia has said the attack was "staged".
It comes after he and a number of other academics were accused of spreading misinformation about the war in Ukraine by MPs in the House of Commons in March - something Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi said the government would "crack down on... hard".
