STUDENT protesters at the London School of Economics slammed their college’s director for preaching radicalism while pushing through neoliberal reforms yesterday after he turned up at their occupation with a peace offering.

The students occupied the luxurious Vera Anstey Suite — usually used for corporate conferences — in the college’s Old Building late on Tuesday.

They called for the university to abandon its business model, divest from fossil fuels and firms benefiting from the occupation of Palestine, and pay staff a higher wage.

In a statement, they said: “We stand against the privatised profit-driven and bureaucratic ‘business model’ of higher education, which locks students into huge debts and turns the university into a degree factory and students into consumers.

“LSE has become the model for the transformation of the other university systems in Britain and beyond.”

About 20 students were present in the suite when the Star visited yesterday morning.

They soon received a message from director Craig Calhoun, who said he wished to visit the occupation to meet the students.

In the corridor, Mr Calhoun handed over a bag of luxury snacks including muffins and dried mango and said he “looked forward to negotiations.”

The burly US professor, whose work includes books on class struggle and nationalism, was appointed top dog of the prestigious university in September 2012.

His 2003-11 predecessor Howard Davies, a former banker, was mired in controversy over LSE’s relationship with the Gadaffi family.

One masters student, who asked not to be named, said Mr Calhoun “parades as a person with socialist principles” but had sold out to the neoliberal project.

“He was employed as a candidate who would move away from the Gadaffi era, but the LSE maintains its commitment to the business agenda,” she told the Star.

“He is on a salary of half a million pounds, and many of his staff are paid only the living wage and are on zero-hours contracts.”

An LSE spokesman said: “LSE was founded for the betterment of society and it is clear that this principle continues to be a guide for many of our students.

“Exchanges between the group and LSE security staff have been positive.”