Teaching a Course on
Government Statistics in a
University Statistics Department
Patrick Murphy
University College Dublin
Ireland
Outline of Talk
1. Introduction
2. Background: Department & Students
3. Course Development
4. The Course: Content
5. The Course: Presentation
6. Assessment
7. Students’ View
8. Lessons Leaned/Alterations
9. Conclusions
Introduction
STATISTICIANS: Who are we?
 ACADEMIC Statisticians
 OFFICIAL Statisticians
 INDUSTRY Statisticians
Introduction
COLLABORATION?

Academics <--> Industry

Academics <--> Official Statisticians
UCD Statistics:
8 Academics
7 have collaborations with Industry
Introduction
26
Fe
“Statistics”
Definition now slightly IRONIC
 “Facts
for the use of the State”
 “State
Arithmetic”
Introduction
Graduate Employment

National Statistical Offices are significant Employers
of Statisticians
Consider...
Ireland: Central Statistics Office

Small NSO
 But largest employer of Statisticians in Ireland
 >70 Permanent Statisticians
Introduction
Training for such Graduates

Statistics, Mathematics

Economics, Social Science, Politics

What about specific training in Official
Statistics?
Introduction
Graduate Training continued...
1999 Web search of Universities revealed
 University of Southampton, UK
MSc in Official Statistics
 Monash University, Australia
Later I discovered
 University of Ljubljana
 University of Helsinki
Introduction
Real Official Statistics Training

“On the Job”

From International Organisations
– Training of European Statisticians
TES Institute
– International Monetary Fund
Introduction
Background:
Department & Students
University College Dublin
Largest University in Ireland
 >20,000 Students
 Department of Statistics formed in 1986
 8 full time Academic members

Background
Statistics’ Students
Level 1 Statistics:
– Approximately 120 Students
Degree through Arts or Science Faculties

Arts
– 3 years combined with another subject

Science
– 4 year single honours degree or
– 4 year joint honours with another subject
Background
Final Year Undergraduate
Courses included:

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Time Series
Survey Sampling
Design and Analysis of Experiments
Survival Analysis
Bio-statistics
Actuarial Statistics
Regression Theory
Non-Parametric Statistics
Background
Higher Diploma in Statistics

One year graduate diploma
 Conversion course for graduates of cognate
disciplines e.g. Psychology, Politics, Economics,
Computer Science
M.Sc., M.A.

One year taught Masters Degree
 Available to Students with a good honours
degree in Statistics, Mathematics or Actuarial &
Financial Studies
Background
Course
Development
Course Development 1: Goals

To provide students with an appreciation of the
extent to which Official Statistics pervades the
lives of citizens of a state

To describe the process by which data are
collected, processed, analysed and
disseminated by an NSI

To introduce some techniques used extensively
in NSI’s that are not taught in other courses in
the Department of Statistics
Course Development
Course Development 2: Logistics

Students:
– Final Year Undergraduate
– Graduate Diploma
– Masters Degree
One-Semester course
 24 hours of lectures
 6 extra computer practical hours

Course Development
Course Development 3: Problems

Existing Courses: Time Series, Survey Sampling
 Arts Students may be studying
– Economics, Politics, Sociology etc.

Science Students
– unfamiliar with these subjects

1999 Web Search revealed few, if any, similar
courses
 Textbook?
 My own background in CSO
Course Development
Course Development 4: Course Materials
Books used by official statisticians

National Accounts
UN System of National Accounts
Eurostat - European System of Accounts

Balance of Payments
IMF - Balance of Payments Manual, Compilation
Guide and Textbook
Course Development
Course Development 4: Course Materials
Other Irish official statistics sources

That Was Then, This is Now - Change in Ireland
1949-1999
– Published by the CSO

Journal of the Statistical and Social Inquiry
Society of Ireland
– Articles by TP Linehan Ex Director General CSO
Course Development
Course Development 4: Course Materials
Some parts of the course were easy to prepare
For Example:

Index Number Theory
 Databases
Course Development
The Course
Course Content
1. History

Domesday book
 IMF, Eurostat

Ireland 1800 - 2000
 CSO

Background reading on UK
The Course
Course Content
2. Legal and Institutional

Statistics Act in Ireland, NSB
 International Organisations
– IMF, OECD, ILO, Eurostat etc.

CSO as an example of an NSI
Including Processing of statistics
– Non-response, Missing data, Quality Control,
Confidentiality, CAPI, Edifact
The Course
Course Content
3. The Statistics

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National Accounts
Balance of Payments
External Trade
Demography
Agriculture
Building
Buisness register
Vital Statistics
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Data Bank
Industry
Labour Market
Prices
Retail Sales
Services
Transport & Tourism
Non CSO data
The Course
Course Content
4. Index Numbers

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History of Cost of Living Indices
Laspeyres & Paasche
Substitution Bias
Fisher Index
Chain method
CPI calculation - Household Budget Survey
Purchasing Power Parities
The Course
Course Content
5. Databases

RDBMS
 Normalisation, SQL etc...

MS ACCESS
The Course
Course Content
6. Additional Topics
Guest Lecturers to reinforce relevance of official
statistics

Regional Accounts
 CPI for Pensioners
The Course
Presentation of the Course

Content not Mathematical but Discursive
 Statistics Students not used to this
 Lot of material covered in class
 Wanted to encourage interaction in class
Hence...

Course home page on W W W
 Course notes on web as PDF files
 Links to external sites, NSI’s etc.
The Course
Assessment
Course Assessment

30% Continuous Assessment
 70% Final Exam

Continuous Assessment consisted of projects to
be completed by students in groups of two or
three
 Six weeks to complete
 Oral Presentation
 Written Report
Assessment
Projects in Year One
Projects were based on CSO statistics

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Unemployment Statistics
Agricultural Accounts
BOP40 - Balance of Payments Survey
Tourism Statistics
Consumer Price Index and Household Budget
Survey
Assessment
Projects in Year One
Content

Descriptions of concepts measured
 Descriptions of data collection procedures
 International comparisons

Students should also act as consumers and
analyse recent statistics
Assessment
Students’ Views
Students’ Views

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Course unlike others in Statistics Department
Arts students acclimatised faster
Reaction generally positive
Some students very interested in area which
was new to them
Two students chose careers in Official Statistics
directly because of this course
3 science students didn’t perform well
Student’s Views
Lessons Learned/
Alterations
Lessons Learned/Alterations

Course content changed slightly
 Examination format changed
 Projects revised to be more relevant to daily life
 New projects did not concentrate on one are but
combined many to answer a question
Report writing was flawed in first year so
guidelines were introduced for second year
Lessons
Projects in Year Two

Project 1.
Economists warn that the Irish economy is in
danger of overheating. They cite the recent
increase in inflation as one piece of evidence.
Discuss, using as many sources as you can find
to back up your opinion.
Lessons
Projects in Year Two

Project 2.
Using at least five different indicators compare
Ireland’s economic performance since 1990 with
the rest of the world and explain why the Irish
economy has become known as “The Celtic
Tiger”
Lessons
Projects in Year Two

Project 3.
There is currently a housing crisis in this country.
Construction firms are booming but a few years
ago builders couldn’t find jobs. Using as many
official statistics as you can, describe the extent
of this situation and explain what you think is its
cause.
Lessons
Project Guidelines
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Size 15 pages 12pt font
No photocopied material
One page Introduction & Conclusion
International Comparisons
Remainder of 15 pages discretionary
Appendix 1:
– Methodologies & Sources used by the NSI’s

Appendix 2: Sources for report

No Plagiarism, Complete Group Participation,
Deadline
Lessons
2003

Changes in UCD caused cancellation of
this course
Future

Likely amalgamation of Survey Sampling
course with this Official Statistics course
Lessons
Conclusions
Conclusions
Goals met
 Students have better understanding of

– work done by official statisticians
– how the results of that pervade society
Textbook ???
 Graduates employed in official statistics
 Guest lecturers

Conclusions
Conference on Official and Public
Statistics
 Centre for Official Statistics at UCD?


Recommend similar courses elsewhere
FOR MORE INFO...
Patrick.Murphy@UCD.IE
Hopefully this hasn’t been too boring...