For whats its worth, i'd rather invest my time doing an art degree rather that a 'software package' based degree.

I plan on doing a BA Drawing degree to build a fundamental foundation, then maybe followed by a Computer Animation Master [probably at Bournemouth] in order spruce up my self-taught digital skills.

Although Maya is my favoured choice, i woundn't want to spend so much time training in a specific package as i might not want to branch off to others. Some studios dont use commercial software, and others, especially smaller ones, may not use the one you've trained in. I'm sure alot of studios use many diffrent packages, thus giving you a choice, but i wouldn't want to live on that hope.

More importantly i dont want to learn how to do somthing specifically in a package...

...I want to learn how to 'animate', not how to 'animate in maya'.