The Joint Program in Survey Methodology was established at the

University of Maryland, College Park The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1856, UMD i ...

in 1993, a collaboration between that University, the

University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...

, and Westat. Today JPSM offers coursework on-site and online, offering MS and Ph.D. degrees, certificate programs, and short courses on the subjects of

Survey Methodology Survey methodology is "the study of survey methods". As a field of applied statistics concentrating on human-research surveys, survey methodology studies the sampling of individual units from a population and associated techniques of survey d ...

, Survey Statistics, and

Data Science Data science is an interdisciplinary academic field that uses statistics, scientific computing, scientific methods, processing, scientific visualization, algorithms and systems to extract or extrapolate knowledge from potentially noisy, stru ...

History

In the early 1990s, the U.S. federal statistical system ( Interagency Council on Statistical Policy) sought assistance to provide advanced training to their employees in survey statistics and methodology. Employees who had graduate degrees from traditional statistics programs lacked knowledge on the design of complex samples and developing survey instruments—interdisciplinary training which was necessary for implementing large-scale national surveys and censuses. In order to accomplish this initiative, the

National Science Foundation The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) is an Independent agencies of the United States government#Examples of independent agencies, independent agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that su ...

set up a grant that would provide an initial five years of funding for a University to establish this program. The grant was awarded to the Joint Program in Survey Methodology (JPSM), a group made up by the

, the

, and Westat, and was headquartered at the University of Maryland, College Park. Academic courses began in Fall 1993, under the heading of the first JPSM director, sociologist Stanley Presser. The second director of JPSM, serving from 1996 to 2001 was

Robert Groves Robert Martin Groves (born September 27, 1948) is an American sociologist and survey methodology expert, currently serving as the interim president of Georgetown University since November 2024. He served as the executive vice president and prov ...

, who went on to later head the

US Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The U.S. Census Bureau is part of the U ...

. In 1998, a summer internship program was added for undergraduate students which linked them to paid internships at U.S. federal statistical agencies as well as offering coursework in survey methodology. In 2000, JPSM enrolled their first Ph.D. students, in both statistical and social science concentrations of survey methodology. Survey methodologist
Roger Tourangeau
was named the director of JPSM in 2001 and served through 2011. The fourth JPSM director
Frederick Conrad
served from 2012 to 2015. JPSM is currently headed by Frauke Kreuter, who is also Professor of Statistics and Methodology at the University of Mannheim and head of the Statistical Methods Research Department at the Institute for Employment Research (IAB) in Nürnberg, Germany.

Present

Currently, JPSM offers both MS and Ph.D. programs, in addition to an undergraduate minor, graduate-level certificates, online courses, and short (1-2 day) courses to meet the needs of survey professionals. In addition, JPSM offers a summer program for undergraduate students with internship placements at statistical agencies. To greater strengthen JPSM's collaboration with the federal statistical agencies, many agencies, such as the

, th
National Center of Health Statistics
and the

Bureau of Labor Statistics The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) is a unit of the United States Department of Labor. It is the principal fact-finding agency for the government of the United States, U.S. government in the broad field of labor economics, labor economics and ...

, have employed JPSM students as research assistants. Federal agencies also provide real world problems that are taken on by students in practicum or design seminar classes. Graduates of the JPSM programs are employed by federal agencies, by industry survey organizations, such as Westat,

Mathematica Policy Research Mathematica, Inc., formerly Mathematica Policy Research, is an American research organization and consulting company headquartered in Princeton, New Jersey. The company provides data science, social science, and technological services for social ...

, Gallup, and the Pew Center, as well as university survey organizations such as the

University of Michigan Institute for Social Research The Institute for Social Research (ISR) is the largest academic social research and survey organization in the world, established in 1949. ISR includes more than 300 scientists from a variety of academic disciplines – including political scien ...

and NORC at the University of Chicago. JPSM is also a core partner, along with the University of Mannheim (Germany), in a new International Program in Survey and Data Science (IPSDS), allowing international survey researchers to learn survey methodology courses online from international experts in the field.

References

{{Authority control Survey methodology University programs University of Maryland, College Park