Educating students and facilitating knowledge transfer in official statistics
THE PROJECT
The European Master in Official Statistics (EMOS) is a label awarded by the European Statistical System Committee (ESSC) to master’s programmes providing postgraduate education in official statistics. It is a shared initiative by Eurostat, the European Statistical System (ESS) and the European System of Central Banks (ESCB) that aims to educate students in official statistics and data science to become highly skilled statisticians with expertise in official statistics. In addition, it facilitates the exchange of knowledge and experience between the European producers of official statistics, lecturers, researchers and students in this field.
THE MOTIVATION
The development of EMOS, as a means of including and advancing official statistics in university education programmes and as a collaborative network of representatives of academia and statistics producers, is essential for the further development of official statistics.
EMOS labelled master’s programmes actively collaborate with national statistical institutes (NSIs) and other producers of official statistics for relevant master thesis topics and internships.
Partners in the EMOS network benefit from each other’s experiences and can develop deeper cooperation. The networking is supported by EMOS events and activities, such as network meetings, coding labs, mobility programmes, or jointly available learning resources.
The rapidly evolving data landscape and discussions on changing roles for official statistics producers and statisticians set the stage for a more comprehensive review and a reassessment of EMOS, its objectives and implementation model.
THE METHODOLOGY
EMOS is implemented as a set of courses building on the curricula of existing nationally accredited master’s programmes in line with the EMOS learning outcomes.
The EMOS Board, which is appointed by the ESSC, assists in developing the EMOS programme.
Nearly 10 years after the launch of EMOS in 2014, Eurostat in January 2023 commissioned a study. The purpose of this study was to review the current objectives and achievements of EMOS and to explore opportunities for its future development with the aim of increasing its scope and impact. 
The study report, which was concluded in February 2024, identified three different paths for the future development of EMOS:
continuing to implement EMOS as a quality label with specific
improvements;develop EMOS as a joint programme;
develop EMOS as a certification programme.
At its meeting in May 2024 the ESSC, being the highest decision-making body for EMOS, discussed the results of the expert analysis. The majority of NSIs supported the recommendation of continuing to implement EMOS as a quality label with improvements.
As a follow-up, Eurostat identified key areas for action to be addressed as part of the reflection on the improvements to EMOS. These include:
a review of the mission, goals and value statement for EMOS;
a review of the EMOS label requirements and learning outcomes;
the identification of future development opportunities for EMOS.
After stakeholder consultations on the reviews, proposals on the future development of EMOS are planned to be submitted to the ESSC for endorsement in 2025.
MORE INFORMATION
- European Master in Official Statistics site on the CROS portal
- European Master in Official Statistics on LinkedIn
- EMOS YouTube channel
THE TEAM
Eurostat manages the EMOS network bringing together universities and their collaboration partners in NSIs, central banks, and other partner organisations producing or dealing with statistics and data.
EMOS Secretariat: ESTAT-EMOS@ec.europa.eu
LAST UPDATE: January 2025
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