Bengaluru: After years of commerce ruling the roost in Bengaluru’s PU colleges, science is staging a strong comeback, thanks to the soaring demand for computer science. With admissions underway, many colleges are seeing a renewed rush for PCM (physics, chemistry and maths) paired with computer science (CS), signalling a shift in student interest back to a tech-driven future.“A few years back, students were moving away from science. But now, science combinations with computer science definitely see a lot of enquiries, as much as commerce does. Students seem to want to study pure sciences, do research, and pursue education in foreign universities. Even in degree colleges, we see an uptick in pure sciences,” Mount Carmel PU College principal Babitha Saldhana said.Bharathi Babu, principal, Vidya Mandir independent PU College, said while science has been the preferred course in her institution, the uptick in interest for the computer science combination is palpable. “The fallout is for the electronics combination and the teachers of the department. With CS in demand, no one wants to take up electronics as they feel CS will help them in their further studies. The department should look at tweaking the electronics syllabus to attract students. Else, colleges will have to shut down this stream,” she said.St Joseph’s PU College director Fr Joy Rodrigues agreed. “The demand in science is only for the computer science combination. We tried introducing statistics. It did not do well. So was the case with electronics. We received 1,200 applications for 240 seats, but applications from CBSE students are yet to start as their results are yet to come,” he said.”Science students are increasingly opting for integrated courses. With the PU education department’s guidelines not permitting it, conventional colleges are set to lose out to competition unless the rules are changed,” he added.Fr Sunil Fernandes, principal, St Joseph’s Boys High School, also confirmed an increase in the number of applications for science courses this year. “While commerce — with business studies, followed by economics, computer science, and psychology — has been the most in demand in our school, science has also seen an uptick this time,” he said.”With NEP, CBSE, and CISCE offering many specialisations to choose from, students know exactly where they are going. So that way, there is a lot of diversity coming in, and focus is on specialisation,” he added.Ali Khwaja, founder director, Banjara Academy, said that with the boom in information technology, there is a resurgence of demand for science and computer science-related programmes. “However, the syllabus for computer science in PU is outdated and might not help the students in the degree programmes they intend to take,” he said.