Course unit details:
Applied Statistics for Social Scientists

Course unit fact file
Unit code SOST10142
Credit rating 20
Unit level Level 1
Teaching period(s) Semester 2
Offered by Social Statistics
Available as a free choice unit? Yes

Overview

The main topics to be covered are:

  • Data exploration and visualization using R
  • Descriptive statistics
  • Modelling with Continuous Data
  • Modelling with categorical Variables

Aims

The aims of this course are for each student to achieve:

  • an introductory to data cleaning and exploration
  • an understanding of basic statistics tests
  • an understanding of multivariate statistical analysis
  • an ability to use statistical software R

Learning outcomes

  • be able to import and export data in R
  • be able to prepare data in R
  • be able to produce visualisations of data
  • be able to understand and run descriptive statistics in R
  • be able to understand and run a battery of test of hypothesis in R
  • be able to understand and run a variety of statistical models in R

Teaching and learning methods

Lectures, practicals and coursework.

Please note the information in scheduled activity hours are for guidance only and may change.

Assessment methods

Online exam - 20 MCQs (25%)

Data Visualisation Report supported by reproducible R code - 1,000 words including reproducible R code (75%)

Feedback methods

Feed-back on individual based essay

Recommended reading

Agresti, A. (2018). Statistical Methods for the Social Sciences (5th ed.). Pearson. 

Fogarty, B. (2019). Quantitative Social Science Data with R. 

Hothorn, T., & Everitt, B. (2014). A handbook of statistical analyses using R (Third edition). CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group. Landers, R. N. (2019). A step-by-step introduction to statistics for business. SAGE.  

Leon-Guerrero, A., & Frankfort-Nachmias, C. (2018). Essentials of social statistics for a diverse society (Third edition). SAGE. 

Wickham, H., & Grolemund, G. (2017). R for Data Science: import, tidy, transform, visualize, and model data. O’Reilly UK Ltd. 

Study hours

Scheduled activity hours
Lectures 20
Practical classes & workshops 8
Independent study hours
Independent study 172

Teaching staff

Staff member Role
Todd Hartman Unit coordinator

Fees and funding

Fees

Tuition fees for home students commencing their studies in September 2027 will be £10,050 per annum. Tuition fees for international students will be £34,800 per annum.

For general information please see the undergraduate finance pages.

Policy on additional costs

All students should normally be able to complete their programme of study without incurring additional study costs over and above the tuition fee for that programme. Any unavoidable additional compulsory costs totalling more than 1% of the annual home undergraduate fee per annum, regardless of whether the programme in question is undergraduate or postgraduate taught, will be made clear to you at the point of application. Further information can be found in the University's Policy on additional costs incurred by students on undergraduate and postgraduate taught programmes (PDF document, 91KB).

Scholarships/sponsorships

We know that student finance can be complicated. The links below provide further information to help guide you.

Learn more about student finance options for UK students.

Learn more about fees and finance for international students.

As an international student you may be eligible for our Global Futures Scholarships. This is open to students starting their studies in September 2026.

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