The Discipline focuses on the following disciplines: Statistics, BioStatstics, and Financial Mathematics.
Statistics gives meaning to numbers and includes all the ways in which data are collected, processed and interpreted. Professionals in many fields, such as commerce, actuarial science, operations research and economics require a sound knowledge of statistics.
Academic and research statisticians are concerned with the training of students and with statistical research in a chosen specialised field. New theories are developed and existing theories are revised, providing the theoretical foundations upon which the applied statistician depends. Basic research in statistical theory is mainly conducted at universities.
Applied statisticians are concerned with problems of data interpretation in the commercial, industrial and scientific sectors. They assist in planning procedures to collect and analyse information. Applied statisticians work in such diverse fields as finance, economics, engineering, medicine, psychology, astronomy, chemistry, life insurance and agriculture (more specifically, the Biometrician). They are responsible for the design of the sampling procedures and experiments and they assess the reliability of the conclusions.
In addition, the Discipline offers a postgraduate honours based programme in financial mathematics. In particular, this programme focuses on the pricing of derivative contracts, introduces the student to the important concept of risk and offers courses that covers important concepts in stochastic calculus and martingale theory.
NEWS & EVENTS
Figuring out How to Change Attitudes Towards Stats
Many minds shut down at the thought of understanding let alone studying Statistics which is exactly the attitude a Dutch author and academic is working hard to change...
UKZN Statistics Student Bags Top Honour
Tarylee Reddy, a MSc graduate in Statistics, has won first prize in the 2011 SASA National Postgraduate Student Paper Competition.
Staff and student appear on the SASA Newsletter
In the SASA June 2011 newsletter, there appears a two page introduction to the School of Statistics & Actuarial Science at UKZN and a short feedback from a SASA scholarship recipient at UKZN.