Department of Statistics and Population Studie...

Head of Department’s welcome message

Welcome to the Department of Statistics and Population Studies. Our department is a vibrant department filled with passionate students and staff. As per the name of the department, our department revolves around two interconnected fields, namely; Statistics and Population Studies.

Our Population Studies programme focuses on equipping students with the knowledge and skills needed to understand a modern society. As was seen in the COVID-19 pandemic, populations the world across, are interconnected and ever-changing and therefore society needs individuals who are able to understand the challenges of a modern society.

The Statistics field has enjoyed tremendous growth over the past few years and with the onset of the 4th Industrial Revolution, the need for statistically trained graduates is vital. With the introduction of two additional postgraduate programmes, specialising in Data Science at the Honours and Masters (MSc) level, the department has furthered our mission to equip students with the skills needed in industry. With the “data era” in which we find ourselves, the need for statistically trained graduates will not subside any time soon.

Our department also engages frequently with industry partners, to ensure that we are teaching and equipping students with the knowledge and skills needed for current workplace.

The department is a vibrant department where we value the interaction between students and staff at all levels and across all disciplines. The sharing of knowledge, through learning and teaching as well as research practices, is an important role that we take on.

If you are interested or have any queries on any aspect of our department or our programmes, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Dr Humphrey Brydon - MSc, PhD (UWC)

About Us

Mission

The Department strives:

For research excellence, be it of theoretical or applied nature in fields of Statistics, Data Science and Population Studies
To train students who are well developed employable individuals.
To collaborate with departments at UWC and other academic institutions.
To continue further training for employees from industry and government.
To have excellent facilities to carry out its research, teaching and outreach.

Introduction

Have you noticed when opening your social media account that, suddenly, you are seeing advertisements about the latest smartphones available?

Have you wondered why this happens? Do you remember searching for smartphones a few days earlier?

In September 2020 it was noted, that humans produce 2.5 quintillion bytes of data every day. Your smartphone search forms part of that data and the process that brought that search to your social media account, is analytics.

More specifically, Statistics is the machine that concerns itself with the collection, cleaning, exploration, analyses and presentation of all this data in such a way that the numbers are turned into insight.

Are you interested in predicting the direction of a financial market? Tools presented to you in time series analysis could get you started on this.

Perhaps you need to determine what the typical client profile of a specific fashion brand looks like. Techniques that can solve this problem are included in statistical learning.

The application of the topics covered under the umbrella of Statistics knows no limits and now, during the 4th industrial revolution, a deep understanding of Statistics has become an indispensable skill.

You have just bought your first car, but the excitement is short-lived when you start receiving those exorbitant insurance quotes from the different companies.

A new insurance company wants to establish a young client base that they can hopefully retain well into the future, thereby ensuring the company’s sustainability. You are contacted by a broker from this company. You meet for coffee and they present you with a very reasonable, and completely surprising, insurance quote.

How is this possible?

Well, in September 2020, it was noted that humans produce 2.5 quintillion bytes of data every day. A decade or so ago, businesses were grappling with how to store this rapidly growing influx of data and the term big data was born. Having solved some of the big data storage challenges, the new goal was to turn this data into intelligent, adaptive, data-driven systems. This new insurance company formed a team tasked with finding a model that predicts a potential client’s insurance risk, using non-standard insurance history. They started extracting relevant data from the vast amounts of information you’ve been generating over time through the internet of things, and the data these companies have been storing in their databases.
They considered different ways of pulling this information into models with which to predict your insurance risk and finally found that you are eligible for insurance. Solving this problem required in-depth business domain knowledge, expert database communication ability and an exceptional understanding of statistical modelling.

In short, there where Mathematics, Statistics, Computer Science and Business Intelligence meet, lies what has been called the ‘sexiest job of the 21st century’ - Data Science.

Population Studies is a scientific study of the human population and more specifically the study of size, geographic distribution, age-sex structure and the socio-economic composition of populations.

Population Studies furthermore studies the measurement of demographic processes in relation to economic development, social development, environment, population ecology, cultural and biological factors. Nationally the field of Population Studies is classified as a scarce skill.

To put it simply: Statistics, Data Science and Population Studies make sense of numbers.

This description means that Statistics includes the ways in which information is collected, processed and interpreted. These activities are based on sound scientific principles, particularly those of the queen of the sciences: Mathematics. The study of the occurrence and spread of diseases, and of the effective treatment of diseases cannot be undertaken without contributions from a statistician.

For instance, the development of new farming methods, relies heavily on statistical techniques. When designing and testing new machinery, engineers make extensive use of statistical principles.

In the collection of information concerning the quality of life of a country's population, the planning, implementation and processing of nationwide surveys, rests largely on the statisticians and demographers.

Long term as well as short term insurance is extremely dependant on the correct use of Statistics.

Career Opportunities

Agriculture
Finance
Insurance
Chemistry
Education
Telecommunications
Medical
Marketing
Manufacturing
Engineering
Economics
SARS
Statistics SA
SA Fisheries
Weather Bureau
Population Bureau
Institute for Population Studies

Statistician and Demographers tend to be people who:

Enjoy solving problems
Can think logically and scientifically
Are curious
Are independent individuals
Have discipline and tenacity
Skills Acquired
Develop procedures for solving modern mathematical and statistical problems
Planning and analytical skills
Designing of experiments
Analysing Data
Presentation and reporting skills
Computer programming skills
Population analysis and forecasting
Research skills

Degrees offered in Statistics with specialisation in Data Science and in Population Studies:

Honours
Masters
PhD

About

Admission &
Financial Aid

Study

Campus Life

News &
Announcements

Head of Department’s welcome message

About Us

Mission

Introduction

Career Opportunities

Statistician and Demographers tend to be people who:

Degrees offered in Statistics with specialisation in Data Science and in Population Studies:

About

Admission & Financial Aid

Study

Campus Life

News & Announcements

Head of Department’s welcome message

About Us

Mission

Introduction

Career Opportunities

Statistician and Demographers tend to be people who:

Degrees offered in Statistics with specialisation in Data Science and in Population Studies:

Admission &
Financial Aid

News &
Announcements