Journal compilation  2007 Royal Statistical Society 0964–1998/07/170581 J. R. Statist. Soc. A (2007) 170, Part 3, pp. 581–622 The teaching of statistics in UK universities T. M. F. Smith and L. Staetsky University of Southampton, UK [A project report on the teaching of statistics in UK universities presented at a meeting organized by the General Applications Section on Wednesday, December 13th, 2006] Summary. The project on the teaching of statistics in UK universities has two phases. In phase 1 various data sources are explored and the Directory of Academic Statisticians is identified as the most reliable source of data on statistics teaching staff. The number of staff in core math- ematical science groups peaked in 1996 and has declined since then. The decline is related to research assessment exercise score. Phase 2 is a survey of university groups that identify with the discipline of statistics within the mathematical sciences and which are the key groups for determining the future supply of statisticians. These groups can be categorized as strong, marginal or weak, depending on their recent history and perceived prospects. This categoriza- tion is used to make projections of staff numbers in 2010. A decline of between 7% and 22% is expected. The position in medical statistics is stable. Conclusions are drawn in the final section on the basis of the survey returns and the analysis of the Directory of Academic Statisticians data. Keywords: Data sources; Forecasts; Recruitment; Survey; Teaching staff; Trends 1. Introduction The Teaching Statistics Trust, the Committee of Professors of Statistics (COPS), the Associa- tion of Statistics Lecturers in Universities and the Higher Education Academy Mathematics, Statistics and Operational Research Network, with additional support from many university departments, have sponsored a review of the teaching of statistics in British universities. Details of the sponsors are given in Appendix A. The broad remit of the project is to examine the current extent, levels and emphases in undergraduate and post-graduate statistics teaching, in which university departments it is taught and to what levels and numbers of students. The aim is to provide a source of information on current and changing university statistics teaching as a basis for future debate on the continuing provision and requirements in the changing climate of the UK university scene. The current situation is placed in context by examining the changes and influences over the last 20 years. The motivation for this project is twofold. The first issue is the perception that the position of statistics, as a discipline in its own right, is declining. Some well-known departments have been closed, or are being closed, and there is a shortage of UK research students. This perception about the discipline is shared by many other countries including Australia (see Statistical Soci- ety of Australia (2005)) and the USA (see Mason (2003)). The second issue is that the COPS has been collecting data for over 20 years but nobody has bothered to analyse the data. Two sets of data are collected by the COPS. The first, and most important, is data on statistics staff Address for correspondence: T. M. F. Smith, Southampton Statistical Sciences Research Institute, University of Southampton, Highfield, Southampton, SO17 1BJ, UK. E-mail:T.M.F.Smith@soton.ac.uk