The same applies to officers who have extra-marital relations - their actions are also deemed to cause scandal and denigrate the institution's image.

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The institution's friendly image, its involvement with charity at home and abroad and its readiness to allow its powers to be reduced are strengths made all the more potent by the charismatic personalities of the three queens who have been its most recent sovereigns.

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It said it was devoting a lot of effort to countering the image of Oxford as an institution which favoured those from more privileged backgrounds.

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