chennai whats in a name apparently a lot going by the response that colleges have elicited by providing some value addition to conventional courses and giving the names a tweak after we changed our bsc information systems management to bcom information systems management this year we received twice as many applications as last year students are always looking for new options said mop vaishnav college for women principal k nirmala prasad other conventional courses like bsc mathematics and bsc physics have also got a makeover and have been repackaged as bsc mathematics with computer applications and bsc physics with computer applications university of madras expects the change in nomenclature to give a fillip to courses like bsc nutrition food service management and dietetics which will be changed to bsc home science emerging technology nutrition food service management and dietetics the change in nomenclature is not all superficial say students who feel that colleges are also adding brand value to the courses even after spending three years studying nuances of design methods and materials like architecture students do people often ask us if weve done a diploma course a home science degree with specialization in interior design sounds more like a degree and is likely to be more accepted said sowmya nandakumar who has completed a bsc interior design course in a city college industry experts said that graduates with a specialization will have more edge than conventional degree holders b ananthakrishnan hr manager at a financial services company said a bsc mathematics graduate would be no good to us in our industry but if the candidate has done a specialization in finance or insurance he could be recruited for a position that does not require a candidate with an mba degree academics say repackaging a course to make it more multidisciplinary widens the scope of the syllabus and this works to the advantage of students a few years ago our bsc nutrition and dietetics students received low salaries when they started out but after we changed the course to bsc food science and management and incorporated elements of food processing students have done well academics say the changes are made based on industry requirements a prospective employer doesnt look at the course content only at the candidates degree when the course is restructured that should reflect in the title of the course said university of madras vicechancellor g thiruvasagam he said change in course names have helped colleges to fill 8090 of seats in courses that earlier received few applications