The sacking of one of Australia’s most prominent academics has rocked the country’s economics establishment, with his university department promising a root-and-branch review to determine how the influential professor was able to obstruct a former student’s career for 13 years.

Chris Edmond was found to have committed “serious misconduct” by an independent investigation at the University of Melbourne last month, for repeatedly blocking the career progression of a woman he had previously had an affair with while supervising her PhD.