We aim to:

• Improve students’ advanced reasoning in quantitative statistical analysis, which is based on and rooted in the social sciences, and which is about our ability to solve specialised problems of quantitative analysis in relation to social facts.
• Put special emphasis on the acquisition of knowledge, insight, skills and scientific attitudes required to arrive at the independent recognition, structuring and solving of complex problems of quantitative analysis in various contexts of the social sciences.
• Teach students how they can deal with normal real-life data sets, but also more extreme data sets with spare numbers or extremely large and complex data structures. Students will be well-equipped to study independently new high-level developments in the field and learn how to acquire new skills needed to tackle these developments successfully.
• Teach students how they can communicate the results of data analysis clearly and effectively. After all, this knowledge must be linked with the theoretical notions they have obtained on the subject matter of the analysis. So students need to check the results obtained against current scientific social science theories.
• Develop a critical attitude to the application of scientific software in the area of the social sciences.
• Make students familiar with current generally accepted professional ethics and ethical codes in the field of survey methodology and data analysis. To this aim, professors will refer, wherever possible, to the professional principles and attitudes, such as those adopted by the WAPOR (World Association of Public Opinion Research).