Program Overview

Our BSc Statistics is for students who want to understand and analyse data using modern statistical methods. It’s a home for mathematicians who enjoy solving practical problems and who want to make a difference in all sorts of areas. On our course you can study a wide range of topics, such as:

• Statistics, including theory and practical computer-based exercises
• Optimisation, from linear to integer programming
• Applied mathematics, such as vector calculus and differential equations

You’ll also have the chance to engage with our employability activities.

You develop your mathematical and statistical skills with a balance between solid theory and practical application in problems arising from finance, medicine, biology, economics and other fields of modern research.

You therefore can gain an exceptional range of knowledge and skills that are currently in demand in statistically oriented employment; in business, commerce, industry, government service, education and in the wider economy.

Our Department of Mathematical Sciences is genuinely innovative and student-focused. Our research groups are working on a broad range of collaborative areas tackling real-world issues. Here are a few examples:

• Our data scientists carefully consider how not to lie, and how not to get lied to with data. Interpreting data correctly is especially important because much of our data science research is applied directly or indirectly to social policies, including health, care and education.
• We do practical research with financial data (for example, assessing the risk of collapse of the UK’s banking system) as well as theoretical research in financial instruments such as insurance policies or asset portfolios.
• We also research how physical processes develop in time and space. Applications of this range from modelling epilepsy to modelling electronic cables.
• Our optimisation experts work out how to do the same job with less resource, or how to do more with the same resource.
• Our pure maths group are currently working on two new funded projects entitled ‘Machine learning for recognising tangled 3D objects’ and ‘Searching for gems in the landscape of cyclically presented groups’.
• We also do research into mathematical education and use exciting technologies such as electroencephalography or eye tracking to measure exactly what a learner is feeling. Our research aims to encourage the implementation of ‘the four Cs’ of modern education, which are critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity.

Placement year

Alternatively, you can spend your third year on a placement year with an external organisation, where you learn about a particular sector, company or job role, apply your academic knowledge in a practical working environment, and receive inspiration for future career pathways.

If you complete a placement year you'll only pay 20% of your usual tuition fee to Essex for that year.