Department of Statistics
Life at the Department of Statistics
Learn more about the exciting art of extracting meaning from seemingly incomprehensible data. Stage one Statistics is the most popular subject with students of The University of Auckland, find out why.
We are the largest Statistics department in Australia and New Zealand and the birthplace of the R Project, which is a free software environment for statistical computing and graphics.
The department teaches a full range of courses and covers a broad spectrum of statistical research areas. We also offer a consulting service either on a fee per service or retainer basis to internal and external clients. We are an affiliate of the New Zealand Institute of Mathematics & its Applications (NZIMA), which is one of the five Centres of Research Excellence receiving funding from the government.
We are also a student-centered department and a leader in new teaching methods and technologies. We have won two National Tertiary Teaching Awards for undergraduate teaching in 2003 and more recently in 2009.
We aspire to be a department:
- that produces high-quality research on problems of practical importance
- that teaches leading-edge courses that will be useful to all students in their coursework and research
- that is innovative in its teaching method
- that has strong links with all parts of the University which are involved in collecting and analysing data
- in which lecturing staff perform collaborative research with at least one other discipline
- in which lecturing staff do some applied consulting.
A post graduate qualification in statistics is extremely useful. Statistics applies to almost any field, ranging from scientific research, teaching, actuarial to business management. If you wish to be a statistician, a post graduate qualification is essential.
The study and practice of statistics is exciting. In one week, a practising statistician may help to design an experiment to evaluate the effects of a new treatment for a disease, analyse a set of data gathered by an ecologist, and help a freight carrier to study work processes to find ways of making the company more profitable.
The Statistics staff are approachable, friendly and committed to providing a supportive environment for students which is conducive to learning and personal growth. The lecturers in our Department come from a range of backgrounds – Biology, Engineering, Health, Marine Science, and even Art History! With this broad range of background skills they show students how to interpret and critically evaluate statistics in our data rich world.
Statistics applies to almost any field and is compulsory for some very popular university programmes. Stage one statistics is the most popular subject with students of The University of Auckland. It is taken by two out of every three students who come to this university. Few students start out intending to be statisticians. However, many see statistics as an ideal partner course to enhance their quantitative capabilities while pursuing their career-choice subject.
Statistics is the human side of the computer revolution, an information science, the art and science of extracting meaning from seemingly incomprehensible data.
We are living in the information age. Computers allow us to collect and store data in quantities that previously seemed unimaginable.
What is this data? It might be costs, values, sales volumes, measurements, ratings, distances, prices, percentages, counts, times, or market shares. But raw, undigested data stored on computer disks is of no use until we can turn it into information and start to make sense of it.
In your future life and career, you will need to make good use of such information to be able to make sound decisions.
The study and practice of statistics is exciting. In one week, a practising statistician may help to design an experiment to evaluate the effects of a new treatment for a disease, analyse a set of data gathered by an ecologist and help a freight carrier to study work processes to find ways of making the company more profitable.
