Do the participants of the degree wish it was a specifically English folk degree? That's the real question. Whatever your ideology regarding folk music, you're not taking the course and they are.

Given that British Isles folk music has always been incredibly intermixed, with tunes travelling fairly freely between countries, I'm reminded of the joke about the med-school student talking to his tutor.

"I think diseases of the ear, nose and throat are very different," says the student, "so I plan on specialising in diseases of the nose."

"Is that a fact?" says the doctor. "And which nostril were you thinking of specialising in?"

Graham.