Paul McCartney has opened up about the new phenomenon of academic courses dedicated to studying the Beatles.

During a recent Q&A on his official website, the former Mop Top says it is "ridiculous, yet very flattering" that some institutes of higher learning dedicate entire courses to the history and legacy of his band.

"For me it's ridiculous, and yet very flattering," said McCartney.

"Ridiculous because we never studied anything, we just loved our popular music:Elvis, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Fats Domino, etc. And it wasn't a case of 'studying' it. I think for us, we'd have felt it would have ruined it to study it."

He added, "We wanted to make our own minds up just by listening to it. So our study was listening. But to be told - as I was years ago now - that the Beatles were in my kid's history books?

That was like 'What?! Unbelievable, man!' Can you imagine when we were at school, finding yourself in a history book?!"