In some colleges enrolment in general accounting classes has picked up while new courses such as 'accounting fraud detection' have filled up faster than expected.

At the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, 270 students have enrolled in a course called 'Financial Statement Analysis', an increase of 50% on a year ago, reports from across the pond said.

Apparently the collapse of WorldCom and Enron in the wake of accounting scandals, as well as the conviction of Andersen has made both traditional courses and specialised courses popular with students.

Steve Goldfarb, spokesman for the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, said the accounting scandals had a positive side.

'It's showing high school kids and first and second year college kids how important good audits are,' he said.