This rise in prestige has been mirrored by a revamp of undergraduate business programs, with the top ones increasingly resembling MBAs thanks to an emphasis on the rigorous study of economics, statistics and accounting and MBA-like teaching methods using case studies and team exercises.

CNN: Starting out young

Computer science, accounting, economics and engineering majors were in high demand this year.

WSJ: Private Sector Lifts Grads' Job Outlook

Their advanced training in accounting and economics allowed them to know things about the markets that common folk like me could not possibly know or understand.

FORBES: Why I Index by Rick Ferri

Since the crisis began, we have been in constant dialogue with our students, who have heard from our economics, finance, accounting and financial history faculty as well as alumni involved in the financial sector.

FORBES: Magazine Article

Shyam Sunder, a professor of accounting, economics and finance at the Yale School of Management, is one of the few academics lucky enough to secure data from a tech company's servers and hard drives.

CNN: Technology - Scholars begin autopsy of dot-com era

There is also along with the marketisation of higher education there's a greater and greater emphasis on vocational and pre-career university courses and the advertising and marketing of vocational and pre-career - accounting, law, economics, finance, engineering, applied sciences - these are becoming very, very popular, undergraduate curricula in these areas are expanding dramatically, a faculty who are teaching in these areas are paid better and better.

BBC: NEWS | UK | Education | Higher education 'market' warning