A Statistical Review about Teaching Statistics at University Level and the Job Availability for the Graduates with Degree in Statistics in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Today Statistical Science holds a major place in both education and industry. Sri Lanka has universities which award bachelor degrees mainly in Statistics. Main objective of this study is to analyze the job availability for the graduates who hold a degree in statistics or has followed statistics as a major subject in their degree programs. It was considered 15 government universities and 5 private universities to analyze how the statistics is being taught as a subject, as well as the 10 organizations from public sector and 10 organizations from private sector have been selected for analyze the job availability for statistics graduates. Job availability was measured using the job advertisements published and posted by these public and private institutes or the organizations through paper advertisements and online job search portals. This study was carried for the year 2016. Sample of 100 graduates who have completed bachelor degree in 2015 in government and private universities were selected and they were given a questionnaire to be filed. 62.5% of the graduates in the sample were employed by the time. Job availability was analyzed by searching paper advertisements and e-advertisements whether the required qualifications contains degree in Statistics. Descriptive statistics have been used for data analysis. According to the findings there are two main types of graduates produced with a degree in statistics. Job availability in private sector is comparatively 7 times larger than the government sector for the statistics degree holders. Statistics degree holders from science stream have more chance of getting government and private sector jobs since 90% of institutes require the graduates from science stream. It has been identified by the results that many of private and public organizations do not have clear understanding about the capability of these Statistics degree holders both are from Science and Arts screams. It could be found that although Sri Lankan universities produce many graduates, they do not have enough knowledge in practical statistical applications which is insufficient to work in an industry.