Centralized Statistics Courses at SMU: opportunity and advantage for SOR; research benefits for SMU

The Department of Statistics and Operations Research (SOR) at the Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University (SMU) in South Africa offers courses in Statistics (Stats). Several departments in SMU campus require Stats training in their study program. In the interest of quality offering in Stats training and for statistical services needed for research, SOR oofers to collect, centralize and facilitate all the Stats modules on campus. This paper then reflects on the impressions of academics and researchers on SMU campus regarding their view on centralized Stats courses in SMU. This will help explore the opportunities, envisaged research benefits and challenges for centralizing all the SMU Stats training in SOR.