THE Oxford college which rejected North-East schoolgirl Laura Spence has suffered a 50 per cent drop in applications from the region.

It follows the political storm after the college rejected the Tyneside student's application.

Laura, who was a pupil at the Monkseaton Community High School, opted to go to Harvard University in the US after Oxford chiefs knocked back her application, to read medicine, despite a straight-A prediction for her A-level results.

Laura, 18, went on to gain five A grade A-levels and is now studying chemistry in the US.

But the controversy she left behind has led to other potential students opting out of applying to Oxford for places.

Newcastle-born Andrew Hobson, admissions tutor for Magdalen, said he had received just two applications from Tyneside and two from Teesside among the total of 407 applications to the college.

Last year, there were eight from the North East.

He said: "I don't want to point any fingers, but if only four people apply, we are not in a position to give more places to the North-East.

I'm saddened that more people haven't applied."