Mathematics Operational Research and Statistics with a Professional Placement (BSc)

Why study this course

This four-year degree features an employability-enhancing third year working in a paid role, providing the ideal preparation for a career in operational research and statistics.

Gain valuable hands-on experience and develop your professional skills whilst delving deeper into the fascinating world of Operational Research and Statistics.

Operational Research, or Management Science, uses advanced statistical and analytical techniques to help organisations and individuals make decisions efficiently. Working in this field you might be:

• determining manpower and resources allocation
• finding sequences in a supply and procurement chain
• developing customer profiles and segments

This course will equip you with the skills, methods and ways of thinking you need to become a confident statistical analyst. You will be able to tackle complex organisational problems using methods such as data collection, statistical modelling and simulation.

This four-year version of the degree includes a year of paid work in a mathematician and/or statistician role during year three. You will return to Cardiff following the successful completion of your work placement at the start of the autumn semester ready for your final year of studies.

In a competitive graduate job market, a placement can help you gain extra skills and experience to make you stand out from the crowd. It could help you secure a permanent role after you graduate, as well as providing real-world context to support your studies. If you're not sure what career path to follow, it's a great opportunity to explore your options and might even help you make those all-important decisions about your future.

Our students have completed exciting placements at organisations including:

• HM Revenue & Customs
• NHS Wales
• The Office of National Statistics
• IBM

Accreditations

• Institute of Mathematics and its Applications (IMA)

Careers and placements

Career prospects

You can use your BSc in Mathematics Operational Research and Statistics with a Professional Placement Year as a pathway to the workforce where you may meet our alumni working in a variety of fields such as data science, operational research, internet technology, medicine, banking, logistics, risk management, and marketing. Or, you might choose to widen your career options to include a range of related fields by completing postgraduate studies in the sciences, computing or engineering.

Maths Careers Support

In the Spring semester of your first year, there are a range of masterclasses available to you to help support your future career prospects. The classes cover work experience, CV and covering letters, application forms, interview techniques, and an introduction to LinkedIn.

We have a regularly-updated student jobs board featuring a range of volunteering, internship, placement, and graduate opportunities. Plus, we organise a full programme of student and employer presentations every year with employers, such as Lloyds Banking Group, HSBC, PwC, Institute and Faculty of Actuaries, Sainsburys, Network Rail, GSK, Office of National Statistics, Welsh Government, the MOD, Welsh Water, and the Met Office.

The School of Mathematics also has a Careers Management Skills Programme, presentations by students returning from industry and a range of sponsored prizes awarded for academic achievement.

Placements

The option of spending year three in industry extends the BSc degree to four years. If you decide not to do a placement abroad, you will have two options.  You can change to a three year BSc Mathematics programme, or a degree programme that includes a Year Abroad.  A year of studying abroad will keep the duration of your BSc degree at four years.  This option will be dependent on your academic performance and when you decide to change programmes.