It seems to be a match made in international education heaven.

Chinese and other foreign students want specialized degrees to stand out from other job applicants, and business schools in this country get revenue in tough economic times. Melissa Korn of the Wall Street Journal has the details:

When the business school at the University of California, Davis, started its master’s program in accounting last year, administrators expected to attract aspiring accountants from nearby colleges.

What they got instead was a wave of interest from overseas: Roughly two-thirds of the 189 applications received for last fall’s entering class came from Chinese citizens.

“Frankly, we were shocked at the deluge of applications…for what we saw as a program that prepared students for a U.S. credential,” says James Stevens, assistant dean of student affairs.

Like companies, business schools “have to change with the times and go where the market is,” says Anurag Gupta, chair of the banking and finance department at Case Western Reserve University’s Weatherhead School of Management.

More than 85% of applicants to Weatherhead’s current Finance master’s program came from China, and more than 80% of the 58-student class is Chinese. The school launched a version of the program in Shanghai a few years ago to balance diversity in the Cleveland program and earn money abroad.

Companies in China’s fast-growing finance sector want hires with some advanced skills beyond a college degree, yet don’t need recruits with the high-level strategy expertise—and high salary requirements—that an M.B.A. might have, according to students and schools. A U.S. credential also makes students more appealing to multinational companies, schools say.

Davis has plenty of company. Specialized master’s degrees in accounting, finance and other disciplines—generally aimed at students just out of college and lasting one year—have found tremendous popularity in recent years among Chinese nationals seeking a competitive edge and U.S. experience.

Such demand has provided steady revenues for business schools at a time when traditional M.B.A. programs are losing their appeal among U.S. students. But the uneven applicant pool has left many schools weighing financial goals against uninspiring classroom experiences for both Chinese and local students and worrying about weak job-placement rates.