Status of Probability and Statistics in Some European Universities

Abstract

During the summer of 1964, the writer visited one university in each of thirteen countries of Western Europe and talked informally with heads of mathematics departments and statistics institutes, other teachers, and students about their programs in the mathematical theory of probability and mathematical statistics. The main purpose of the visits and the discussions was to learn something about the ways in which Western European universities deal with these subjects and perhaps gain some insight into what American colleges and universities ought to be doing with respect to these subj ects. Probably most readers of this journal know that there are some unresolved problems here in connection with the teaching of probability and statistics. For example, at least five ways of administering the teaching of probability and statistics are in effect in American colleges and universities. In some institutions, the teaching of the mathematical theory of probability and mathematical statistics is carried on as an integral part of the work of the mathematics department, no distinction being made between these subjects and other mathematical subjects. In some other American universities, the mathematical theory of probability and mathematical statistics are taught in the mathematics department but a special section of the mathematics department is responsible for them. In some other American universities in recent years, the teaching of the mathematical theory of probability and mathematical statistics has been taken out of the department of mathematics and a separate department or institute of statistics has been established in the College of Arts and Sciences or the College of Liberal Arts. In at least a few cases in America, the teaching of the mathematical theory of probability and mathematical statistics is carried on exclusively in the College of Business Administration. And, of course, there probably are some American colleges and universities in which the mathematical theory of probability and mathematical statistics are not taught at all. Another topic the writer wished to discuss has to do with the best way to begin the undergraduate study of probability and statistics. Is it best to begin with a formal abstract course in probability? Or, is it best to begin with a course in statistics that is full of illustrations and applications, using only an informal discussion of the concept of probability and the more or less intuitive notion everyone has about probability, and then make the second course a formal study of the mathematical theory of probability after the students know how essential probability is in statistical inference and after know what they are talking about?