Master's Programme in Mathematical Statistics
Do you want to hone your analytical powers, learn to process reams of data and make this data sing? In this digital age, with an explosion in both the amount of data collected and in the computational power at our disposal, there is enormous demand across all segments of the economy for highly trained statisticians. Our programme will stretch your mind, increase your statistical prowess and equip you with a solid theoretical foundation for tackling the data-driven challenges of the future.
While studying
You will be part of a human-sized Master's programme hosted by the Department of Mathematics and Mathematical statistics. The small-scale of the programme allows for individualised learning, and for richer and more personal interactions between students and teachers, and is one of its main attractions. All incoming Master students are assigned a mentor from one of our main research groups – Biostatics/bioinformatics, Functional data analysis & spatial statistics, and Statistical learning & inference. The mentor follows the student through the programme, giving advice on the choice of courses and thesis topics, as well as on applications to Ph.D. programmes.
A flexible programme
Beyond the programme's core courses and thesis projects, there is great flexibility about choosing courses from closely related fields such as mathematics and computer science. Teaching on the programme consists of a mixture of traditional lectures, seminars and individual supervision on the one hand, and of extensive courses and projects based in a computer lab setting on the other hand, in which one learns to master advanced data analytics and statistical software (R, Minitab, SPSS, etc.). All teaching on the programme is done in English and by active researchers with a long experience of statistical analysis and statistical consulting.
Should you wish to, you also have the opportunity of taking part in a semester-long exchange abroad at partner mathematical statistics departments in Italy, France, Spain, the UK, China, South Korea and Kazakhstan as part of your studies.
Read more about the programme
Why Umeå?
The programme's greatest draw is its close connection to the life of the research groups in the department, which we hope you will take full advantage of. As a student on the programme, you will be able to work on research and thesis projects with some of our highly successful researchers and to use the mentoring system as a gateway into the world of research.
Living as we do in the age of the data-driven economy, statistical skills are in high demand on the labour market. In addition, some of our core courses (and much of our research) lie in exciting "hot topic" areas such as machine learning, artificial intelligence, network science and big data. The employment prospects of our graduates are thus excellent.