BRETTON Hall's famous arts campus is to be axed by Leeds University.

The complex, next to the West Yorkshire Sculpture Park, is home to about 1,000 students and has launched the careers of several well-known playwrights.

Ex-students include Kay Mellor, writer of many TV dramas including Fat Friends, John Godber who penned Teechers, Bouncers and On the Piste, and Mark Gatiss and Steve Pemberton, who created The League of Gentlemen.

The campus houses Leeds University's School of Performance and Cultural Industries, which runs six degree programmes in performance design and production, music theatre, acting, theatre, arts management, performance design and production, dance, creative writing, arts education.

But Leeds University wants to withdraw from the site and bring students to its campus in Leeds city centre.

University pro-vice-chancellor Alan Pearman said: "We have thought long and hard about how we can provide the highest quality education to students through developing and sustaining world class teaching and research in the creative arts and performance.

"We appreciate the attractions of the Bretton site and the affection in which it is held.

"But our vision has to be world class, and to achieve that we need to integrate arts excellence at Leeds, where our students have the best facilities, the widest range of study opportunities - and ready access to one of Britain's cultural capitals."

Leeds University Student Union communications officer Tom Wong said: "We will be working with the university to make sure that all students are provided for.

"If any individual student needs advice or support, the student advice centres in Bretton and Leeds are available.

"Carrie, the Bretton Hall officer, Sam, our education officer and myself will be in Bretton over the coming weeks to talk to students and make sure student concerns are raised with the university."

The former Bretton Hall higher education college merged with Leeds University in 2001 when its future was already in jeopardy.

The merger saw a number of new, successful courses launched including popular and world music, cultural theory and analysis, contemporary art practice and music theatre.

A final decision on the strategy for closure will be made by the University's governing body on December 9.

Bretton students are being assured they will complete courses they have started.

Relocation will not take place before 2006 at the earliest, so current second and third-year students will finish their degrees at the Bretton campus.

It is likely that first-year students and those recruited for courses beginning in 2005 will be studying at Leeds.

The university's Manygates site in Wakefield also looks set to be axed.

Progress has been reported to students and staff through announcements, letters and meetings.

No plans have been announced for the future of the site.