The fall in the number of applications to the college at the centre of an elistism row has been blamed on the TV quiz University Challenge.

There was a 22 per cent drop in the number of people applying to Magdalen College, Oxford, this autumn.

Applications rose in recent years when the college twice won the TV quiz show title. The college did not take part in the programme this year and applications have now dropped.

Magdalen hit the headlines after Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown accused it of elitism because it turned down Tyneside comprehensive school girl Laura Spence who was later given a place at Harvard, USA.

For three years, it experienced a boom in applications, which president Andrew Smith claimed was due to its success in University Challenge on TV.

Mr Smith said: "What has happened is that we are now back to what we were before, which is no bad thing because we are at a more realistic level now."

State school pupils do not seem to have been deterred by the Laura Spence affair.

Of the 400 applications for the 120 places, 48 per cent were from state schools and 39 per cent were from the independent sector the rest were overseas students.

Mr Smith said: "The good thing is that applications to the University overall were up by one and a half per cent."