A FORMER channel director for the BBC has joined the University of Lincoln with hopes of bringing its students into city life.

Playwright and translator Mark O'Thomas is the new head of performing arts at the university and has strong ideas about improving the students' experiences during their degree.

Under Dr O'Thomas there will also be more performances out in the community and the university will work with other city groups on it.

He said: "I suppose one of the main things I want to do is make the degree much more outward facing in terms of reaching the city of Lincoln.

"I want to make sure it is not just students rehearsing and putting on productions for each other. If we can start doing more street and open air theatre and reach more people, that would be great."

The Lincoln School of Performing Arts is based in the Lincoln Performing Arts Centre (LPAC) on the university's Brayford Pool campus.

The £6 million building, which opened in 2007, has a 450-seat theatre, backstage facilities, studio spaces and seminar rooms.

Dr O'Thomas said: "The idea of being outward facing also links with the LPAC. I think a lot of people in the city don't really know it is there. Even though it is just off the street, I think people feel like they are going on to the university campus.

"I want to make it a much more integral part of the city."

Some of the plans for developing the LPAC as a city venue include appointing a new artistic director later this year to oversee its programme of public performances, which will be a mix of student and professional productions.

Dr O'Thomas said: "There hasn't been an artistic director before and that will be a key part of making developing the plans for the LPAC.

"To have someone with a clear vision of what the venue can achieve and the direction it can take will be great.

"I think part of the problem has been the LPAC is difficult to make sense of from a public point of view.

"It is the same with a lot of arts centres with a mixed economy, they do a bit of everything.

"On the down side it means people don't know what to expect.

"Part of the idea is to do more integrated seasons and incorporate professional, student and more academic performances into them."

Dean of the faculty of media, humanities and technology, Professor David Sleight, said: "Recruiting Mark as our new head of performing arts is a real coup. He brings with him great credibility from the world of theatre and broadcasting and we will be working very closely together in the future growth of the Lincoln Performing Arts Centre.

"This will give the university and the city of Lincoln a nationally renowned school of performing arts based within one of the best facilities of its kind in the country."