Course summary

Develop the skills and knowledge a professional statistician needs to solve problems across a range of career paths. Course description Our MSc Statistics course will teach you the theories behind a variety of statistical techniques and how to apply them in scenarios that professional statisticians face every day. Statistical skills open all kinds of doors, and through our MSc Statistics course you’ll develop the knowledge and experience needed for roles spanning finance and consultancy, healthcare, data science, public administration and research. Whether you want to advance your understanding of the topics you found most interesting during your undergraduate studies or gain the skills needed to achieve your goals, you’ll develop a detailed working knowledge of important statistical techniques and concepts. You’ll explore topics including linear and generalised linear modelling, Bayesian statistics, time series and machine learning. You’ll learn how to collect data and design experiments, and the role of statistics in clinical trials. You’ll also develop the ability to analyse and draw meaningful conclusions from data, and grow your programming skills using the statistical computing software R. You’ll spend around a third of your time working on your dissertation, under the supervision of an active researcher who is an expert in their field. This may focus on investigating a data set, or a more theoretical or methodological topic. You’ll blend theoretical knowledge with practical skills, mastering project planning, data acquisition, problem specification and analysis skills. You’ll also learn how to present statistical information, and gain experience communicating your findings verbally and in writing. Examples of recent dissertation topics include:

• Spatio-temporal Modelling of Social Phenomena

• Feature selection for high dimensional data

• Modelling Sports Results

• Neural Networks with Python

• Dissertation topics are often provided by external clients, such as pharmaceutical companies or sports modelling organisations. Distance learning students also often come with projects designed by their employer.