Once it was said that a Classics degree equipped you to do anything. In later, more scientific times, a Chemistry degree was seen as just as good.

And in truth, most chemists and classicists ended up as successful managers, lawyers, churchmen, accountants, even Prime Ministers. Horace and hydrogen bonds were soon forgotten. What remained were the habits and attitudes of thought and learning. It wasn't so much a degree in chemistry as a degree in how to learn.

And therein lies one danger with Media Studies or Consumer Affairs. You don't have to grapple with a real academic discipline in depth You skate over a thousand ponds, without bothering too much about what lies underneath.

It's not just that you end up an expert in nothing. You never really learn how to learn either. To be a good generalist, you have to learn how to be a specialist in something first. The nature of the speciality is largely irrelevant.