History of the examinations

The examinations trace their history back to the earliest days of the former Institute of Statisticians, in the late 1940s. At that time, there were almost no university courses in statistics. The Institute therefore set up professional examinations in statistics, which provided almost the only route to a recognised qualification in the subject. When the Institute and the Royal Statistical Society merged in 1993, the examinations continued under the auspices of the Society. The standards of the examinations are unchanged.

The need for this separate route to a qualification has obviously diminished, but not disappeared. The examinations are still taken by candidates in the UK, and they retain their status in many countries throughout the world as being almost the only route into the profession. Many of the overseas candidates are training to be government statisticians in their countries. There are also many candidates from the government statistical service in the UK.

Other UK candidates usually include some mature students seeking a further qualification in statistics or perhaps a full career change. People seeking a career change might wish to consult our careers section where there is information specially designed for people in that situation. The examinations might also be of interest to school teachers who find themselves being called on to teach statistics whereas their training was in mathematics, or even in some other subject. The Higher Certificate would probably be the appropriate level.

In 2006, the Society developed a new modularised format for the Higher Certificate examination, for partial introduction in 2007 and full implementation in 2008. This was done so as to give candidates new opportunities to take modules singly or in any combination, perhaps as components of a continuing professional development programme, without necessarily proceeding to the complete Higher Certificate. In 2008 the Society took this development forward to the Graduate Diploma level, with a new modularised format introduced in 2009. Finally, a modularised format for the Ordinary Certificate was developed for the examinations from 2011.

The examinations are taken at centres in many countries around the world. Please follow this link for information on the examination centres that are available.