OXFORD University is taking its recruitment drive to football stadiums in an attempt to change its elitist reputation.

Months after the Laura Spence incident, the university will be visiting St James' Park, the home of Newcastle United, on July 3.

Pupils in their GCSE and lower sixth years will be invited to meet university lecturers, and hopefully, members of the team.

Undergraduates, who went to schools in the North-East will also be there to answer questions about what it is to be like to be a student at Oxford.

Last year, Chancellor Gordon Brown ignited a row over an Oxford college's decision to turn down pupil Laura Spence.

When Magdalen College rejected her, it suffered a 50 per cent drop in applications from the region.

Laura, who attended Monkseaton Community School, opted to go to Harvard University in the US after Oxford chiefs rejected her application to read medicine, despite a straight-As prediction for her A-level results.

Oxford University project officer for widening participation Louise Horsfall, said: "It is part of our aspirational programme to widen access."

Andrew Hodson, admissions tutor for Magdalen College, is helping to organise the event.

He said: "We hope to attract students who might not otherwise be able to visit Oxford.

"They will be able to find out about making an application.

"We have already been to Wembley Stadium and to Murrayfield in Scotland, because sports grounds are good hubs for local people and it helps to get away from the cold academic image."