STATISTICAL EDUCATION FOR PHD STUDENTS IN UK

MEDICAL SCHOOLS

 

PAULA R. WILLIAMSON

University of Liverpool

prw@liv.ac.uk

 

GILLIAN A. LANCASTER

University of Liverpool

g.lancaster@liv.ac.uk

                                                                                       

SUMMARY

 

Little is known about the provision of statistics teaching for PhD students in UK medical schools. A recent survey found that statistics courses were available to PhD students in 13 of 21 schools responding. The provision across these 13 schools was variable in terms of contact hours and content. At a meeting of 27 medical statistics teachers, consensus was reached that such teaching should be undertaken by a subject specialist, however there was no consensus as to the best mode of delivery. We describe the rationale for, content of, and student feedback from our newly developed course programme which emphasises aspects of both design and analysis of research projects.

 

Keywords: Statistics education research; Teaching; Medicine; Postgraduates; Survey

 

 

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Statistics Education Research Journal, 3(1), 72-79, http://www.stat.auckland.ac.nz/serj

Ó International Association for Statistical Education (IASE/ISI), May, 2004

 

 

 

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PAULA R. WILLIAMSON

Centre for Medical Statistics and Health Evaluation

Faculty of Medicine

University of Liverpool

L69 3BX