On Monday 24th November, an event run by Westminster Briefing and sponsored by the British Academy and House Magazine, entitled “Data Skills at University: Developing Students’ Numerical and Statistical Literacy” took place at the British Academy in London.
The day was primarily focused on developing the quantitative skills of social scientists. Presentations had a number of common themes including the low level of quantitative skills of those coming onto social sciences degrees, the poor quality of the school statistics curriculum, the increasing need for quantitative methods in the social sciences, the resistance of some academic colleagues to change, the hope (rather than expectation) that the new Core Maths qualification might have a positive impact and the need for Learned Societies in the social sciences to be much more interested in both the school curriculum and school outreach
Duncan Lawson presented an overview of the national situation with regard to mathematics and statistics support. This included information about the sigma Network and the current HEFCE-funded project.
A report on the seminar by Duncan Lawson with details of the presentations is available here.