Develop the analytical and statistical skills for success in industry, business or public sector on this MSc Operational Research and Statistics at the University of Southampton. You’ll work with multinational industry partners on real case studies, and learn operational research techniques and applied statistical methods at an advanced level. You’ll graduate with the knowledge and practical skills in 2 highly valued disciplines. 

Operational researchers use analytical methods to help organisations become more productive through better planning of strategy and delivery. 

Statistics is an important tool for operational researchers, because it involves decision-making in the face of uncertainty. 

On this operational research UK master’s course you’ll learn to develop solutions to complex organisational problems using mathematical modelling, experimental design, statistical analysis and numerical computation. 

You'll gain essential skills in the 4 main areas of real-world problem-solving: 

• analysing the problem through designing experiments, and collecting and visualising data 
• formulating the problem mathematically and offering solution approaches 
• providing statistical analysis and computation 
• presenting and communicating the results 

A highlight of this statistics and operational research course is the 3-month summer project, when you’ll have the chance to compete to work with an external organisation on a real problem. This could relate to operational research, statistics, or both. 

With this degree you’ll be ready to work as an operational researcher or statistician in industry, business or the public sector. 

Career advancement is usually rapid in operational research. 

Industries you could go into include: 

• government 
• defence  
• financial services  
• health 
• manufacturing  
• oil 
• transport and travel  

You’ll also be in a great position to continue your researches at PhD level.