8 March, 2010: More BCA graduation Pics

See some of our happy graduates here...

8 March, 2010: BCA semester 1 classes have begun!

BCA classes have begun for semester 1, 2010! This semester the BCA is offering courses in Mathematical Background for Biostatistics, Data Management and Statistical Computing, Survival Analysis, Health Indicators and Health Surveys, Principles of Statistical Inference, Probability and Distribution Theory, Epidemiology, Longitudinal and Correlated Data, and Clinical Biostatistics.

Thinking of enrolling for semester 2, 2010? Read the course information, or information for future students.

8 March, 2010: New BCA community page

Click here for information about statistical societies, research and job opportunities.

Professor Annette Dobson named Member of the Order of Australia

Annette Dobson, BCA Program Coordinator at the School of Population Health, University of Queensland, was honoured in the 2010 Australia Day list of honours for her work in public health. Read an interview with Professor Dobson here

19 January, 2010: Study finds partnererd women gain more weight

A study co-authored by Annette Dobson, which found that women with a partner gained more weight than those without a partner or child, was featured in the New York Times.

The study, which has surveyed more than 6,000 women over a 10 year period, is aimed at assessing factors contributing to weight gain in young women.

Source: The University of Queensland School of Population Health

Read the New York Times article
Read the full paper

11 January, 2010: Statistical Society of Australia Accrediation

The BCA Master and (Post)Graduate Dilpoma programs have been accredited by the Statistical Society of Australia.

SSAI accrediation gives students of accredited programs automatic status as a Graduate Statistician when they apply to the Society. To prospective students, it guarantees that the course they are choosing is recognised across Australia.

Find out more about the Statistical Society of Australia.

11 January, 2010: semester 1 begins 1 March, 2010

Make sure you're correctly enrolled for your semester 1 courses! If you're a current student, make sure to enrol through your home university and keep the BCA office up to date on any change in your contact details. Prospective students should check out our future students page for information on how to enrol in a BCA course.

Download the semester 1 BCA/universities calendar

Applications have closed for the BCA Annual Awards for Excellence 2010

The sellection panel will meet on 30 March 2010 to make their selections for the "Roche - BCA Annual Award for Excellence" and the "Pfizer - BCA Annual Award for Excellence". Three annual scholarsips will be awarded.

The Award for Excellence may be granted to outstanding applicants who are seeking to enrol or are currently enrolled in the Graduate Diploma or Masters Degree associated with the BCA program at one of the BCA consortium universities.

The scholarships pay for 2 units of study within the year in which the award is granted.

April 2009: BCA Scholarship Winners 2009

The Following students were awarded BCA Scholarships in 2009:

BCA Pfizer Annual Award for Excellence:

Mr Jason Wu (The University of Sydney)
Name withheld (The University of Sydney)

BCA Roche Annual Award for Excellence:

Ms Cattram Nguyen (The University of Melbourne)
Dr Matt Spittal (The University of Melbourne)

June 30, 2009: "Growing our own biostatisticians", The Age, 29 June 2009.

Sue Goss reports on the role of the BCA in training biostatisticians for the workforce.

Download "Growing our own biostatisticians"

June 29, 2009: Biostatistics Demand Survey 2009

In 2009, the BCA commissioned a survey of current and potential employers of biostatisticians in order to assess the demand for biostatisticians in the Australian workforce. Read the results below.

Download the Biostatistics Demand Survey

June 24, 2009: BCA Graduations 2009 (The University of Sydney)

Click here to view images of 2009 BCA / NSW Health Biostatistics Training Program graduate dinner.

April 2009: BCA Student Testimonials

Read about the experiences of BCA graduates and current students.

Scholarships: BCA Awards for Excellence

Click here for information about BCA scholarships

Statistics: the Dream Job!

Presentation by Hal Varian - Chief Economist, Google, to the 2008 Almaden Institute, Innovating with Information.

"... with data in huge supply and statisticians in short supply, being a statistician has to be 'the really sexy job for the 2010s'".

BCA Published Papers

Heller, Gillian Z; Forbe Andrew B; Jobing, Erica; Dear Keith B.G; Biostatistics @ Distance: A Model for Successful Multi-Institutional Delivery, The American Statistician, November 2008, Vol. 62, No. 4.

Although biostatistical work is threaded throughout health research, the health and medical sectors of higher education have not historically provided sufficient support to professional biostatistical training. Many graduates of Master of Public Health programs and Master’s or Graduate Diploma courses in epidemiology acquire the skills to perform a range of statistical analysis, but these skills are necessarily limited to a basic level. In an era of ever-growing complexity of data and of modeling approaches, these generic skills need to be backed up by professional biostatistical expertise.

Download the paper.

Simpson, Judy; Ryan; Philip; Carlin, John; Gurrin, Lyle; Marschner, Ian; Training a New Generation of Biostatisticians: A Successful Consortium Model; Journal of Statistics Education, Volume 17, Number 2 (2009)

In response to the worldwide shortage of biostatisticians, Australia has established a national consortium of eight universities to develop and deliver a Masters program in biostatistics. This article describes our successful innovative multi-institutional training model, which may be of value to other countries. We first present the issues confronting the future of biostatistics in Australia, then relate our experience in establishing a new national consortium-based Masters program, and finally explore the extent to which our initiatives have addressed the current challenges of biostatistics workforce shortages.

Website: www.amstat.org/publications/jse/v17n2/simpson.html

Download the paper

Workshops and conferences

Click here for workshops, conferences and meetings; notices of upcoming events and, where available, presentations from past events.

Associated Links
Links to associated websites and information.

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