Dear WAV, instead of pontificating here on subjects of which you have only the sketchiest ideas, you might consider doing some reading about the issues. I would suggest, to start with:

The Study of Folk Music in the Modern World - Philip Bohlman
Folk Song: Tradition, Revival and Re-Creation – Ian Russell & David Atkinson (ed)
Singer, song and scholar – Ian Russell (ed)
The Imagined Village - Georgina Boyes
The Invention of Tradition - Eric Hobsbawm & Terence Ranger (ed.)
Imagined Communities - Benedict Anderson
The Invention of 'Folk Music' and 'Art Music' - Matthew Gelbart
If you fancy going head to head with another polemicist, of a very different persuasion, then try Fakelore by Dave Harker.
And of course there are also the excellent annual Folk Music Journals published by the English Folk Dance & Song Society – plus further bibliographies on the EFDSS website with plenty of other suggestions for you.
(No cost need be involved in any of this: all available from libraries - and your local library can get any book via inter library loan)

If you have issues about the Newcastle course, then I suggest it would be much more productive for you to contact the director of the course with your concerns, Vic Gammon, than sounding off on Mudcat. His email is vic.gammon@ncl.ac.uk I'm sure he would be happy to explain the rationale of the course and give you more detail. Vic is of course not only a well-respected and widely published academic, but is also well-known on the folk scene as a performer of English traditional song and instrumental music and has made numerous recordings.

Sedayne - you're right: it's too nice a day to stay in ... I'm off for lunch outside then a walk up Latrigg!