Two students share 'Statistics Netherlands Award 2008'

Students Matthieu Brinkhuis and Jesper Tijmstra have received the ‘Statistics Netherlands Award 2008’. Gosse van der Veen, director-general of Statistics Netherlands, presented the award on the occasion of the opening of academic year 2008-2009 at the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences of Utrecht University.

Statistics Netherlands initiated the Statistics Netherlands Award for the best master’s thesis in the research master’s programme Methodology and statistics for the behavioural and social sciences  at Utrecht University. This is the first time the prize has been awarded. The award is intended to underline the importance of the programme and to provide a tangible aspect to the collaboration with Utrecht University. Matthieu Brinkhuis received the prize for his thesis ‘Student monitoring using chess ratings’. Jesper Tijmstra received the award for his thesis ‘Testing weak item independence for the constant latent odds-ratios model using Kendall’s W’. Brinkhuis and Tijmstra will share the Statistics Netherlands Award 2008. 

Methods and techniques researcher

The research master’s programme ‘Methodology and statistics for the behavioural and social sciences’  is part of the Graduate School of Utrecht University and is taught by the Methods and Techniques Research Group of the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences. Graduates from this two-year programme are qualified to work as  researchers in social scientific methods and techniques, or as methodologists, at universities and research institutes. The programme consists of courses in advanced methodology and statistics, an internship, and research seminars. The students complete the programme with a thesis. 

Relevant programme

This specialist and highly rated master’s programme at Utrecht University is valued very highly by Statistics Netherlands. The statistical office rates the programme as very relevant, as statistics will be based more and more on secondary sources in the future. The demand for highly qualified methodologists will also increase in the coming years. 

For further information

Maria Splinter, Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, + 30 253 6718, m.m.splinter@uu.nl.

or  Press office Utrecht University, + 30 253 3550, perscommunicatie@uu.nl