THE principal of a college celebrating its 130th anniversary has warned teachers not to 'lower expectations' of bright pupils who could get into Oxford University.

Comprehensive-educated Dame Elish Angiolini QC, of St Hugh's College, said there was 'a real danger' high-achieving pupils would not apply because they thought they were unlikely to succeed.

Her comments came after half of teachers were found to underestimate how many state school pupils were admitted to Oxford in a study by the Sutton Trust.

The research also found a fifth of teachers who would not encourage pupils to apply said so because they thought they were unlikely to get in.

This was despite the university this year admitting the highest number of state school pupils it has seen in four decades, at 59.2 per cent.

In an interview with the Oxford Mail, Dame Elish said there was 'a great desire to have a more diverse population of students'.

The former Lord Advocate of Scotland added: "You do need to be brilliant to come to Oxford – although there are many students who would qualify and go to other universities – but to tell people they shouldn't apply gives the impression people are not good enough when that is not the case.

"It also creates a real danger of lowering pupils' expectations of themselves.

"At St Hugh's we have so many people who come from different backgrounds and this college was founded to educate poor women.

"We have not quite got there yet with access as a university but we are trying hard to bring more people in to experience it.

"It would be wrong for anyone to think there is not a place for them at Oxford if they have the academic ability."

She added: "The most important thing is for people not to doubt themselves, so I would say to teachers who feel that way 'please do not discourage them'."

Dame Elish was speaking as St Hugh's College held a series of public events this month to celebrate its 130th anniversary, including mocking up a room as it would have looked when the college was a Second World War military hospital.

It was founded in 1886 by Elizabeth Wordsworth, the great-niece of the poet William Wordsworth, to help the women ‘who find the charges of the present halls at Oxford and Cambridge beyond their means’.

The college, which counts Prime Minister Theresa May among its alumni, was first established at 25 Norham Road, in Park Town, and named after Hugh of Avalon, a 13th century predecessor of Elizabeth Wordsworth's father, the Bishop of Lincoln.

It moved to its present site, in St Margaret's Road, from 1913 when it purchased the lease of a house called ‘The Mount’ from the Rev Robert Hartley for £2,500.

Women at St Hugh's were first admitted to degrees by Oxford University in 1920 and during the Second World War the college was requisitioned by the military for use as a head injuries hospital. More than 13,000 servicemen and women were treated there between 1940 and 1945.

In 1978, its statutes were changed to allow men to be college fellows and in 1987 the first male students were admitted.

Dame Elish said the present-day college was based on the same principles of diversity, expressing hopes that the UK's impending exit from the European Union would not diminish its community of different nationalities.

Paying tribute to the college's 'quite radical history', she added: "I hope we will continue to flourish.

"We have certainly grown in recent years, particularly with the opening of the Oxford University China Centre here.

"It is an enormous privilege to be principal of St Hugh's and be here among so many brilliant people.

"We have a wonderful, diverse community and hope to be able to continue to attract the world's best academics."

Former undergraduate Alex Hibbert, now a polar explorer, said his time at the college had been 'so, so formative'.

The 30-year-old said: "I never really felt like I was myself at school, but I felt like I became who I am now while I was at St Hugh's.

"I finished with such a positive idea about what I wanted to do and felt as though I could take on the world."

Mr Hibbert, who broke the world record for the longest unsupported polar journey in history with teammate George Bullard, added: "You get to be around so many people who are doing incredible things and that is very exciting."