Organization for the Conduct of Statistical Activities in Colleges and Universities

Although the importance of statistics in many phases of university activities is well-known, many universities have not given serious thought to the optimum organizational structure for statistics.This article addresses this problem in two parts: 1.Principles and/or goals of optimum administrative structures for statistics, and 2.Discussion of the most popular organizational structures now in existence together with comments on the advantages and disadvantages of each.The article concludes that a central statistics unit (department) appears the most optimal structure, although it is not without certain disadvantages and/or dangers.