We require marketing information regarding the studying of statistics
at universities around the world and contact information for teachers
of statistics.

Our client has developed a range of products designed to improve the
teaching of statistics to university students.
Statistics are now taught to a wide range of students: not just
mathematics students, but economists, medical students in every
discipline including areas such as nursing and physiotherapy as well
as the social sciences like psychology, the sciences of physics,
chemistry, biology, etc. and even linguistics.

Our client is aware that this results in many non-statisticians
teaching statistics to students who will only use statistics
infrequently.

Our overall goal is to identify every group of such students together
with the contact details to be able to inform them of our client's
products. I will happily reward any information that you can think of
over and above the questions below.

Please note that the products are already in use in over 30 countries,
so responses that include contact details beyond the USA will be
rewarded.

Question 1
Which university courses include a statistics module.

Question 2
Of those courses, which are taught by members of the
statistics/mathematics faculty and which by members of the subject
faculty (e.g. geography teachers teaching stats)?

Question 3
Could you search for lists of universities in every country and in
each of the faculties that teach statistics focusing on lists that
include links to the contact details of individual members of staff?

I have set a budget of $100, but additional funds are available for
outstanding answers.

I know that you turn these questions round quickly. I will be on
vacation until June 9th and will not be able to respond to requests
for clarification until then.

Thank you.

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Request for Question Clarification by politicalguru-ga on 31 May 2005 03:07 PDT

Dear Melandradave, 

Thank you for your interesting question. Statistics, as you've said
yourself, is being taught in many different faculties and is necessary
for various disciplines.

You've asked here three questions, and let me refer to my ability to
answer each (and I imagine that at least some of these remarks apply
to any Researcher):

(1) What courses include a statistics module? I could compile a list,
based on my own knowledge; as well as observation in large
universities (such as the UC system, Harvard, and larger institutions
outside the US).

(2) Which of these courses are taught by math/statistics faculty,
which don't? I think it also depends on the institution. Smaller
institutions sometimes compromise on "more significant" issues: e.g.,
someone with a degree in English might teach many arts/humanities
courses that are not English courses at all. It is possible that in
larger institutions, or richer ones, there are teachers assigned
solely to statistics. In any case, I could answer this question by
going through my previous (or an additional) sample of large
institutions, adding perhaps some smaller institutions for comparative
analysis. Would that satisfy you?

(3) Addresses/contacts of universities and countries where statistics
is taught: I don't think that this request is answerable, at least not
in the amount stated here. Only in the United States, there are over
6,000 institutes of higher learning; not to mention other countries.
All of these institutions have to be examined (whether they have
statistics courses or modules) and the contact details of specific
persons involved with teaching statistics or purchasing statistics
software shouold be extracted. With the very modest assumption, that
extracting such information would take 10-15 minutes of work on each
institution, and given the fact that we are dealing with thousands of
institutions, this would probably mean something like $10 a record.
Have you thought of alternative method of marketing this software,
besides direct marketing? (e.g., marketing in major conferences,
through professional journals, etc.).