Why does this work? what is the difference between AnyClass and T.Type? How could this be made more generic?

something.swift

	func classForName(name: String) -> AnyClass
	{
		// build namespaced name
		let namespacedName = "Module." + name
		
		return NSClassFromString(namespacedName)!
	}
	
	func nameForType<T where T: Entity>(type: T.Type) -> String
	{
		return NSStringFromClass(type).stringByReplacingOccurrencesOfString("Module.", withString: "")
	}
	
	if let expectedClass = self.classForName(entityName).self as? Entity.Type
	{
	  let result = expectedClass.init(dictionary: ...)
	}