What is it like to study statistics in the MAST programme?
Many of the statistics courses taught in MAST involve lectures and exercise sessions. There are, however, differences between the courses, with others requiring more project work. You are relatively free to choose the courses you want to take, since we have a pool of core courses for statistics from which you need to choose a few. Many of the core MAST courses like probability theory and stochastic analysis are useful for understanding statistical concepts.
It's good to discuss your plans or goals with your academic mentor or teacher tutor, which every student has access to. This can help with deciding what you want to aim for in your future or even to find a supervisor through them for your master’s thesis.
Who is the study track suitable for?
I would say that this is a great choice if you're interested in problem solving and working with real world data and you want to understand real phenomena on a deeper level. All aspects from natural sciences to human sciences are covered in statistics, so you can name anything and find its statistical relevance in society. This can also allow you to be a specialist that acts as the glue between a broad range of different actors.
What kind of career paths does studies in statistics open up?
As far as I know, statistics employment is nearly 100% because statistics is used everywhere. Most positions are outside of academia, like in different research institutes, industry sector, financial and insurance sector, environmental or ecological monitoring, or any place that needs an expert understanding of data.
Companies are very interested in these skills, so there are a lot of opportunities that people are following and researching in statistics. Those skills will, additionally, be as relevant in 5 to 10 years as they are today.
What do you find most interesting about the field of research?
I'm interested in statistics because it connects both the theory and the applied, and you have the whole spectrum of understanding for any role that you can then discuss and practice, so you don’t have to narrowly focus on certain aspects of that role. I am also interested in statistics because of its scope, as it goes through all parts of science, culture, and nature. You can see it everywhere, and the deeper you go, the more complex and interesting problems you encounter. It's an endless source of problems in which you can choose your own path and find your own interests to work with.
I mostly enjoy teaching topics related to statistical inference, which is, broadly, how to make decisions based on statistical observations. I’ve approached these topics from both frequentist and Bayesian points of view.