Red X iconGreen tick iconYellow tick icon

Study Statistics at Otago and make sense of data

Statistics is a discipline concerned with understanding patterns and relationships in data in the presence of variation and uncertainty. How do we discover the “truth” or signal hidden in the noise?

  • You can use statistics to solve real-world problems.
  • You work with researchers from many disciplines.
  • Statisticians are key contributors to decision-making in business and government.
  • Statistics will help you understand your chosen area of study. If you specialise in chemistry, psychology, health sciences, or economics and finance you will need to collect and interpret data.
  • Statisticians are in short supply. You will improve your employment opportunities.

What will I study?

The Statistics programme at Otago will teach you:

  • How to design research studies and collect reliable data.
  • How to build thoughtful statistical models which allow us to understand the key features in a complex system.
  • How to use the statistical models to answer research questions.
  • How to produce informative and engaging graphical representations of data.
  • The mathematical underpinnings of statistics.
  • The computation skills necessary to do all these things.
  • Skills in communicating statistical concepts and analyses to a range of audiences.

We encourage all students majoring in Statistics to also take papers in another field of interest to them, be it Arts, Science or Commerce. Having knowledge of an area of application is extremely useful, and data are virtually everywhere!

Data Science

Statistics and data science are closely related disciplines – both are about learning from data. Statisticians and data scientists collaborate with people in a broad range of fields across the sciences, commerce and art.

Find out more about studying Data Science

Find out more about studying Statistics

Explore degree options, programme requirements and available papers

If you have any questions about statistics papers or course structure, please contact the relevant Director of Studies.

Ready to enrol?

Apply now

Back to top