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The name of the course I chose at university is different to what will be put on my degree certificate and I'm never sure which one to use.
The course I'm studying at university is IT for Creative Industries, but my degree title will be Computer Science and Design.
I think Computer Science and Design sounds much better and is way less ambiguous, I think it's more relevant too since we share 6/8 classes with the Computer Science degree.
Use what will be on your degree certificate and therefore your transcript, as that is what companies will use to verify your information.
However, you can also indicate your specialization on your resume or CV (or LinkedIn profile, etc) because it is a specialization that will be useful when differentiating yourself during the hiring process.
So, something like:
Computer Science and Design, UNI NAME, DATE
specialization in IT for Creative Industries
is perfectly acceptable, as would be something like this:
Computer Science and Design (IT for Creative Industries), UNI NAME, DATE
Your first goal should be to ensure that when prospective employers verify your education, your official degree matches what you say it is, and then your second goal should be to ensure that prospective employers know all the special bits about it, e.g. your specialization.
This is super common. If the university is large and the program has been around for a while, the people who read resumes will be highly familiar with it. For example, like almost everyone I know with an Engineering degree, I actually have a B. A. Sc. (Bachelors of Applied Science.) On my resume/CV (a rare document for me to provide, but I have several versions) I describe my education as:
B.A.Sc. (Chemical Engineering) – University of Waterloo, 1984. Minor: Research
Joint Ph.D and M. A. Sc. (Chemical Engineering) – University of Toronto, 1992. Thesis: An analysis of the contact phase of blood coagulation: Effects of shear rate and surface are intertwined. Several published papers resulted.
No confusion that I might have done Applied Chemistry or something like that. I used the initials because I think more people actually recognize the abbreviated degrees, but of course you can spell them out - and since you like the wording of the formal name, go ahead and do that. Note that in my case, Chemical Engineering is the formal name of my department, not of a program within the department. I could have said Biomedical Engineering instead, which was the program, corresponding to your IT for Creative Industries. Or you could mention your program in the cover letter and connect it to the work you're applying for.
