MSc Distance Education

The Department of Statistics offers its regular MS degree at a distance to employees of companies with whom we have a Letter of Agreement. We will also offer elective courses to employees who want to continue their education through formal courses. The Letter is needed for the following reasons:

1. We need assurances that there will be a site administrator at the other location to receive and monitor exams.
2. The degree we offer is the same as the degree we offer on campus so it requires a serious commitment from the student and it is helpful if the employer supports this effort.
3. The cost of tuition and delivery fees is often more than what an individual wants to pay so we seek employers for whom this expense is part of the company's continuing education program.
4. When a company forms a partnership with us, they often encourage several employees to take our courses and students do much better when they can study as a group. Isolated students do not do as well.

The Letter of Agreement spells out some of these expectations. It does not require any payment by the company except for the tuition and delivery fees. Hence if there are no students, there is no cost. In recent years the course has been delivered by CD and video streaming. This means that the employee does not need to be at a certain place at a certain time. Work can be done on evenings or weekends. The typical load for a student is one course per semester so it takes about five years to finish an MS degree. Students who already have an MS in Statistics might take some of our elective courses as part of their continuing education.