Guide syllabus for professional level statistical training

Abstract

The syllabuses assumes that mathematics will be studied in the first year as one of three subjects, each having equal weight, but no further constraint has been imposed. It is unlikely that the bare minimum will be sufficient for students to gain the greatest advantage from the statistics courses, and in any case some topics in mathematics needed for the statistics will not normally be taught before second year. Apart from actual knowledge mathematical experience and maturity is necessary. A possible way of overcoming the difficulties is to require that any student not taking mathematics as a second year subject should take a supplementary course in mathematics, not for examination, of perhaps 20 hours. Even for the first year course it may be that the mathematics is dealt with at rather too late a stage to be entirely satisfactory: lecturers will need to be on the lookout for problems of this kind.