The RSS has launched a new fundraising campaign to help send RSS fellows over to centres of the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS) network in Africa to teach MSc courses in statistics.

Despite launching only last week to RSS members, the campaign has (at the time of writing) already surpassed the halfway mark towards its £3,500 target, thanks to the generosity of RSS fellows.

The money raised will pay the air fare of two visiting lecturers in statistics and one PhD student to tutor at an AIMS centre for five months.

For a number of years, visiting lecturers from the RSS have been teaching MSc courses at centres of the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS) network. This helps AIMS to train more than 200 students each year at Masters-level for a fraction of the cost that it would take to send its students overseas.

RSS members have reacted positively to the campaign, with donations coming in as well as supportive comments.

RSS president Peter Diggle, who launched the campaign at last week’s Beveridge Lecture, and who himself has taught as a visiting lecturer in an AIMS centre, described the progress so far as ‘very pleasing’.

This post was published on the Royal Statistical Society website.