Master of Research (MRes) University of Bristol, UK

Master of Research (MRes) in Statistics-Bristol
October 22, 2007
postgraduate programme of “Master of Research (MRes)

Dear all,

I am writing on behalf of the Statistics Group in the Department of Mathematics at the
University of Bristol, UK. Rated 5*A in the latest national Research Assessment Exercise,
the Statistics Group at Bristol is the only Statistics Group in the UK to achieve the highest
possible rating, and is a research centre of international excellence.

I would like to encourage and warmly invite you to apply for our postgraduate programme
of “Master of Research (MRes) in Statistics”, followed by PhD study, to start in October
2008.

The MRes is a taught 12-month-long postgraduate programme (starting October 2008),
with 2/3 of the assessment based on taught units and 1/3 based on a project dissertation.
It is designed to provide high quality postgraduate training in the methods and practice of
research in Statistics and Probability, and form a bridge for strong students between
undergraduate and PhD study. As well as forming the first year of a 1+3 MRes/PhD
programme, the MRes can also be taken as a standalone programme.

Successful MRes applicants will have their MRes tuition fees paid from a research council
grant (or at least substantially reduced, for those of you who do not hold EU passports),
and will receive a tax-free salary (studentship), whose current amount is £12,600, with a
likely increase in 2008/09, with the possibility of a supplement of at least £1000, or
maybe more, which is still under consultation. Furthermore, excellent MRes candidates
will be encouraged to proceed to the PhD programme, which is also fully funded.

Candidates for the MRes degree will be required to complete 10 core taught units, 6 of
which are taught and assessed in Bristol . In 2007/08, the following 6 courses are offered:
Monte Carlo methods, Nonparametric regression, Stochastic processes, Graphical
modelling, Advanced time series and Stochastic optimisation.

To build on and complement the in-house lectures, MRes students will be expected to
attend four one-week residential courses (forming the other 4 `core’ units), delivered
collaboratively by nine prominent UK Statistics research groups. In 2007/08, the following
courses are offered: Statistical computing, Statistical inference, Statistical modelling and
Statistical asymptotics.

If the idea of pursing the programme sounds in any way appealing to you, the
Postgraduate Admissions Officer, Dr Oliver Johnson, will be more than happy to discuss it
with you in more detail. Please feel free to email him at questions you may have. Dr Johnson will also be happy to advise you on how to submit
your application.

With best wishes,
Piotr Fryzlewicz
Postgraduate Publicity Officer
Statistics Group
Department of Mathematics
University of Bristol
Bristol BS8 1TW
United Kingdom


Further details of the MRes/PhD programme are available on the web at
http://www.sustain.bris.ac.uk/postgradcourses.html