Whilst I was thinking about the course in Newcastle I was thinking in more general terms. I'm a firm believer that a university education is an end in itself and not necessarily relevent to ones future career. So as long as academic standards are maintained any course is okay by me.

My main 'fears' would be that the universities would end up promoting a right way to do the music and every other way is wrong. (It's a bit like Captain Birdseye's comment about the desireability or otherwise of competition: competition leads to improvement but this improvement is selected by the judge.) The other would be a single, homogenised, tradition.

BTW I've seen the Devil's Interval a couple of times and I really like them.