Evelyn Waugh’s novel Brideshead Revisited is revisited this month on the big screen. But at the University of Oxford, where the saga is set, the return is not wholly welcome.

Brideshead depicts the university’s dreaming spires, luscious lawns and serene vistas, but Oxford is keen to separate the ethereal vision from the reality.

Far from being heralded by the university as an example of why the institution is the hallowed place of learning, for them the film is an unwelcome reminder of the old-fashioned and fusty image that Oxford has spent so much time and money trying to shed.

Ruth Collier, a spokesperson for Oxford told Times Online that the film, set in the thirties is a very different place from the Oxford in the 21st century and the university has made “great efforts” to convey this to prospective students.

“[Oxford is] a place which is open to anyone with the ability and potential to study here, whatever their background.”

The problem for Oxford and Cambridge of course is that portrayals like Brideshead are not the only factor inhibiting the universities’ attempts to portray themselves as socially mixed and modern places of learning.

Crucially, Oxford’s outstanding academic and historical record has been blighted by its failure to attract – or admit– a larger proportion of students from poorer families as well as from ethnic minorities.

Whereas the proportion of children who attend state schools in the UK sits at around 93 per cent, the proportion of state school students at Oxford comes down to just 53 per cent. Only last month, John Denham, Universities Secretary resurrected the Oxbridge widening-participation debate by accusing Oxford of setting its "sights too low" in attracting a wider range of students.

Mary Beard, Professor of Classics at Cambridge University, says the impact of Brideshead style stereotypes could deter bright young students from applying to Oxbridge.

“Well of course there is a Brideshead image out there,” Professor Beard says. “My view is that you have to work through it, both to capitalise on what it offers -I mean the town is beautiful, many students enjoy punting and the architecture can be inspirational - and to make it clear that the kind of snobbishness, overplayed in the movie, I think, is not what they will encounter.”

“But that image is there without Brideshead honestly,” Professor Beard argues. “And in some ways I think that the ‘Brideshead problem’ can be an unhelpful shorthand for a wide range of miscomprehensions about the modern university.”

James Turner, Policy Director of The Sutton Trust – an organisation aiming to provide educational opportunities and raise the aspirations of “able young people from non-privileged backgrounds” says misconceptions about the “typical” Oxbridge student are obstacles to attracting bight young students from less well off backgrounds to apply.

Times recommends

• Students face big rise in university fees
• Students to rate lecturers online
• Lord heads team to look at raising tuition fees