Southampton'S mayor has labelled a city university's decision to digitally alter a photograph of a female student in its prospectus to please foreign students as “an embarrassing blunder”. Derek Burke was speaking out after the Daily Echo revealed how University of Southampton student Ella Dove had her picture taken for the booklet - but was left bewildered when her shorts were turned into trousers and her t-shirt suddenly had sleeves. University bosses said they had digitally changed the pictures so not to offend foreign cultural sensitivities. But Cllr Burke said the distortion of the images was “a mistake”. Ella, 21, who is studying French and English at the university, told how she had been wearing a sleeveless top and shorts that finished just above the knee when she agreed to being photographed. When she found they had been altered she asked university bosses why - saying she felt like she now looked as though she was wearing pyjamas. She said: “I don't think the clothes I was wearing were particularly revealing and I was not showing any cleavage.” Cllr Burke said:“Students from abroad are in a for a shock if they think everyone in the city never shows any flesh. “The prospectus gives a false representation of life here.” A spokesman for the university said: “Our colleagues in the international office felt that culturally some students would prefer to see more conservative dress, including the coverage of shoulders and knees. “The image in question was altered to ensure that it was fit for purpose in a recruitment brochure.”