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March 2018
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Globally, professional activities are becoming overwhelmingly conscious of the value of quantitative data in decision-making and the programme emphasizes such a trend in no uncertain terms. Data science is emerging as a new wave discipline with progressive implications for every conceivable discipline. Younger cohorts of students are recognizing this trend and opting for a programme such as the MSc. in Development Statistics as it provides that right mix of exposure in preparation for further training in Data Science. In fact, the traditional fields where mathematical knowledge thrives, are becoming fully saturated to the extent that data science has been attracting the overflow. A blended learning programme is now envisaged and we are developing the platforms to start delivering the MSc in Development Statistics through such a mode if not by 2018-2019, then certainly by 2019-2020. This will be a more economical and efficient platform for the delivery of the programme. For further information on the programme, please email Godfrey.StBernard@sta.uwi.edu |
For more than 15 years prior to the establishment of the Master of Science in Development Statistics within the Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social and Economic Studies (SALISES) at the St. Augustine Campus, I had been singing the virtues of such a programme at the graduate level within The UWI. There has always been a vacuum in preparing allied professionals to embrace quantitative methodologies in development studies to the extent that such capacities were woefully lacking in the Anglophone Caribbean. As a career statistician for more than 40 years, I was aware of the magnitude of this shortcoming and initiated a process that saw the establishment of the Master of Science in Development Statistics in the 2008-2009 academic year. The programme is now in its tenth year, having made a tangible contribution to an emergent stock of quantitative specialists in national, regional and international organizations.