Two Oxford University colleges have been caught up in a race row after planning to host summer balls styled on The Great Gatsby and New Orleans in the 1920s.

Magdalen and Lincoln colleges have faced critcism that the balls could upset women and ethnic minorities by recalling a time when there was less equality.

Lincoln College's New Orleans ball will feature jazz and promises something for everyone but the university's Campaign for Racial Awareness and Equality claimed the ball showed a "nostalgia for an era of history steeped in racism".

At Magdalen College organisers of the £185 a ticket ball, based on F Scott Fitzgerald's novel, have been criticised for pledging to take students back to 1926.

Arushi Garg, a law student at Magdalen, told university newspaper Cherwell: "1926 at Magdalen was a time when people of colour and women were entirely absent from college spaces. I felt uncomfortable with the advertising.

"Obviously my demographic (woman of colour from a former colony that remains a developing country) makes me less likely than others to uncritically long for a past that privileged some more than others.

"I wrote to the Magdalen organisers and they engaged quite respectfully with me, and are communicating with me to understand why I think this is problematic."

Magdalen Commemoration Ball's committee said it would not be expecting people to dress in 1920s attire and the aim was only to provide people with "an experience".

Lincoln College's organising committee said the theme was based on an article written by scholars with "significant reputations on race relations".