My university is offering a "designated emphasis" in a topic area, that grad students can add to their transcript. I think that the idea is that it can provide some sort of signal that the student has a competency in this area, like a minor for an undergrad.
Has anyone else ever heard of such a thing? What possible practical use could it be to the students getting it? Why might the idea have been conceived of?
Something like this is actually very common in some fields. Economics programs usually have a requirement called "Specialization Fields," "Major Fields," "Field Certification," or something like that (some example requirements).
They usually consist of a couple courses in the same area, as well as often an additional field exam covering topics from those courses. Glancing over some requirements, most programs require you to finish ~2 or these as a requirement for getting your PhD, either equally or as a major/minor setup. As you might expect, almost all students do these in fields that they are interested in and will eventually do research in.
As for purpose, I believe that they are mostly used as a signaling and filtering device for the job market. If you look at any department's list of job market candidates, you can see that the specialization fields are very prominently displayed. I think the importance of these is probably linked to some of the idiosyncrasies of the econ job market, such as its degree of centralization, but that's just my speculation.
