While 472, or 23 percent, of Chinese colleges have changed their names in the past six years, nearly 65 percent of respondents in an online survey say the phenomenon is a "face job".

The study, conducted by China Youth Daily, canvassed 2004 respondents, with 64.9 percent saying such a move is comparable to "pouring old wine into a new bottle" and 67.7 percent saying colleges aim to boost enrollment by having more attractive names.

Wang Yunlai, a professor at Nanjing University, told the paper that many students and parents judge schools according to their names due to a lack of more relevant information.

Colleges sometimes merge disciplines and change names in order to obtain better resources under current regulations, it was added.

The survey also showed that there is about the same number of people who support colleges changing their names as those who don't - 19.7 percent and 18.9 percent respectively - while 61.4 percent say they have no opinion.

Some 16.2 percent say they think a college will see improved development after a name change, 66.6 percent say it depends and 17.2 percent do not see a brighter outlook.

More than half of those surveyed say jumping on the name-changing bandwagon may cut a college's connections to regional, historical and cultural traditions, undermine a its brand value and also mislead students and parents.