I think it is very legitimate to look closely at all courses for folk music. I think the fundamental analytic question should be "who is doing the teaching?". Are the students being exposed to traditional folk music, or are they merely being exposed to revivalist performers who have chosen, for various reasons, to perform material of folk origin? In other world, are the teachers being drawn from the"folk scene": if the answer is "yes", then the course is too narrow...not wworthless, but definitely too narrowly focussed.
   I don't know the answers to this qestion, I havent been to look at what is going on in Newcastle. I applaud its existence, of course folk music should be studied. But I would be profoundly suspicious of what was going on if it became evident, for example, that teachers at festivals were to become largely drawn from a steadily growing pool of folk graduates. That would be a total betrayal of the whole concept of folk music.