Ministry of Education

Identified Competency Focus Areas and Core Courses

for Ethiopian Higher Education Institutions’ Exit
Examination

Program: Bachelor of Science in Statistics

By: 1. BirhanuBetela (MSc, Hawassa University)

2. Tilahun Bedaso (MSc, Arba Minch University)

July, 2022
Addis Ababa
 Ethiopia
CONTENTS
1. Introduction ................................................................................................................................................. 1

1.1 Objectives of the Exit Examination ....................................................................................................... 1

1.2 Significance of the Document ................................................................................................................. 2

2. Expected Profiles of Graduates’ ................................................................................................................ 2

3. Competencies and Learning Outcomes..................................................................................................... 2

3.1 Competencies ........................................................................................................................................... 2

3.2 Learning Outcomes................................................................................................................................. 4

5. Categorizing Courses In To Themes ......................................................................................................... 4

6. Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................... 6
1. Introduction
For about half a century, Addis Ababa University was the only Higher Education Institution
(HEI) in the country responsible for Statistics education. Currently, with intensive expansion of
HEIs, several young universities have initiated Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) programs in Statistics
to meet the demand for qualified statisticians in the growing socio-economic development of the
local, regional and international affairs.In addition to expanding the programme, it is importantto
ensure that all first degree graduates from all universities in the country meet thegraduate profile
of the curriculum. One way to improve students’ learning outcomein a way it links with labor
market and economic growth is realizing exit exam throughout higher education institution based
on the directives of Ministry of Education (MoE). Therefore the exit exam isdesigned to be given
at the end of 4th year to assess students’ knowledge, skill and attitude that required for awarding
Bachelor of Science in Statistics in their higher education tenure.This document has six
components including: introduction, expected profiles of graduates’, competence and learning
outcomes, courses to be included in the exit exam, categorizing courses by themes and
conclusion.

1.1 Objectives of the Exit Examination

The national Statistics exit exam shall have the following objectives

 To produce skilled and competent manpower to national and international market.

 Assessing students’ educational achievement in major areas of Statistics program.
 Ensuring whether the graduation profile of Bachelor of Statistics curriculum have
achieved at least common standards of knowledge and practical skills.
 Facilitating the efforts of students to revise the core learning outcomes of the courses
covered by the exit examination.
 Ensuring all graduates from HEIs satisfy the requirements of the labor market and
employability through the national wide implementation of competency-based exit
exam.
 Creating competitive spirit among Statistics departments in Ethiopia with the aim of
encouraging them to give due attention to the national standards.

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1.2 Significance of the Document
It is important to set competency areas of the subject matter (program) in order to measure the
how much graduates are acquired with skills, knowledge and attitudes. The following shows us
the significance or setting competencies and identifying core courses of the program;

 To set competencies that helps to assess the basic skills, knowledge and attitude of
graduating students;
 To systematically identify the core courses which will be included the exit exam.

2. Expected Profiles of Graduates’

BSc. graduate in statistics is expected to:

 Demonstrate competence in data collection, management, summary and analysis required

at many production and development sectors day to day activities;
 Plan and conduct sample surveys and experimental designs;
 Use statistical software to carry out necessary computation for statistical analysis of
data;
 Write clear statistical reports and communicate the results of statistical analyses in non-
technical language;
 Demonstrate professional ethics in his/her career;
 Assist in statistical research and the provision of statistical services in research
establishments, business and government and non-government institutions;
 Supervise and/or manage activities of lower level statistical units or offices;
 Supervise and/or manage data processing activities in health sectors, financial,
agricultural, educational, research institutions and industry sectors.

3. Competencies and Learning Outcomes

3.1 Competencies

It describes the desired knowledge, skills and behaviors of a graduate student.Any graduated of
the program expected to have the following competencies from the selected courses

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Table 1 list of core courses and competency gained from each course
Core courses Competencies
 Basic Statistics Competence in the methods of data
collection, management, summary and
analysis required in various discipline.
 Statistical Methods Demonstrate the basic concepts of
parameter estimation, sampling
distributions, sample size
Courses related determination and hypothesis testing
to knowledge and ability to use these concepts for
performing estimation and hypothesis
testing.
 Categorical data analysis Ability to identify and apply statistical
methods and models appropriate to the
categorical data.
 Design and Analysis of Competency in the basic concepts of
Experiment various experimental designs and their
applications.
 Time Series Analysis Ability to demonstrate basic time series
concepts, theories, components,
methods and making forecasting and
interpret the results
 Regression Analysis Ability to build a linear regression
model and solve real world problems.
 Demography Ability to demonstrate the techniques
used in the collection of demographic
data
 Social and Economic Statistics Ability to use statistical methods for
solving social and economic problems
 Theory of Distribution Demonstrate the real world problem
 Statistical inference with statistical distributions and have
skills to make statistical inference
 Statistical Quality Control Use SQC techniques and procedures
for quality monitoring and
improvement
 Statistical Computing I Skills to perform data management and
 Statistical Computing II analysis using Statistical packages and
interpret outputs.
 Research Method and Sample Skills to plan and formulate statistical
Courses related Survey Practice research and conduct sample survey.
to skills
Course related All statistics courses Ability to demonstrate professional
to attitude ethics in his/her career and positive
attitudes towards the application of
statistics in real life application

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3.2 Learning Outcomes

At the end of the courses students are expected to:

 Understand the methods of data collection, organization, presentation, analysis and

interpretation;
 Understand the concept of multidimensional random variables and their joint, marginal
and conditional distributions, properties and applications;
 Have acquired enough theoretical and practical knowledge about linear regression
analysis;
 Understand the most common discrete probability distributions used as a basis to the
derivation of statistical methods for the analysis of categorical data.
 Understand the framework of hypothesis testing for carrying out statistical inference.
 Demonstrate basic time series concepts, theories, methods and making forecasting and
interpret the results.
 Understand the demographic data and its significance together with the implications of
variations in demographic measures.
 Apply statistical theories and methods to analyses and report results about social and
economic problems.
 Use MINITAB, SPSS, R, and SAS to carry out graphs and statistical data analysis.
 Define basic concepts of experimental design and identify the principles for the
application of different experimental designs.
 Understand the underlying statistical theory of estimation and hypothesis testing.

4. Categorizing Courses In To Themes

Based on similarity of their natures, courses that are covered by the exit examination shall
be divided in to the following five themes.

Theme 1: Fundamental of Statistics(7 Cr Hrs)

1. Basic Statistics
2. Statistical Methods

Theme 2: Statistical Computing and research method(9 Cr Hrs)

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 1. Statistical Computing I
2. Statistical Computing II
3. Research Method and Sample Survey Practice

Theme 3: Statistical Modeling(17 Cr Hrs)

1. Regression Analysis
2. Time Series Analysis
3. Design and Analysis of Experiment
4. Categorical Data Analysis
5. Statistical Quality Control

Theme 4: Statistical Theories(6 Cr Hrs)

1. Theory of Distribution
2. Statistical Inference

Theme 5: Social Statistics (6 Cr Hrs)

1. Demography
2. Social and Economic Statistics

5. Courses To Be Included In The Exam

Table 2 Core courses listed on harmonized curriculum are the main focus area
for preparing exit exam.
No Course Title Course Code Cr Hrs ECTS
1 Basic Statistics Stat 2011 3 5
2 Statistical Methods Stat 2013 4 7
3 Statistical Computing I Stat 2021 3 5
4 Statistical computing II Stat 3022 3 5
5 Regression analysis Stat3041 3 5
6 Design and Analysis of Experiments Stat 3042 4 7
7 Categorical Data Analysis Stat 3062 3 5

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 8 Time Series Analysis Stat 3043 4 7
9 Demography Stat 4071 3 5
10 Social & Economic Statistics Stat 4072 3 5
11 Research Method and Sample 5
Stat3032 3
Survey Practice
12 Statistical Inference Stat 4052 3 5
13 Quality control Stat 4081 3 5
14 Theory of distribution Stat 4051 3 5

6. Conclusion

In general,graduates of BSc in Statistics are expected to demonstrate competency in data

management and data analysis using different statistical software for effective scientific
decision making.

Based on graduate profile, competency and learning outcomes, for exit examination
14courses selected from 5 themes (fundamental of statistics, statistical computing and
research method, statistical modeling, statistical theories and social statistics). These courses
are: Basic Statistics, Statistical Methods, Theory of Distribution, Statistical Computing I,
Statistical Computing II, Time Series Analysis, Demography, Regression Analysis, Social
and Economic Statistics, Statistical Inference, Design and Analysis of Experiment,
Categorical Data Analysis, Statistical Quality Control and Research Method and Sample
Survey Practice.

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Appendix