The Future of Education

The paper informs about the range of alternatives for utilization of various methodological tools implemented at a major European Research Infrastructure – namely the European Social Survey programme – to provide modern teaching resources for students in Informatics, Statistics, and Econometrics. A contemporary study of database management, statistical analysis of data, and reporting of research results at all university levels (undergraduate, graduate, and postgraduate) can be substantially boosted by incorporation of particular components of the methodological grounds of the European Social Survey programme. A specific focus of the paper is put on the variety of options to provide valuable resources for teaching empirical analysis courses that utilize cross-sectional data, especially in comparative research setting. Particularly important for the PhD students are the options for deriving cross-country comparative analyses of socio-economic topics using large sample representative data for numerous European countries. However, before doing any analytical work the student has to gain substantial knowledge about database management (with appropriate examples form the area of social surveys), data processing, and preparation of cross sectional data for analysis using specialized statistical or econometric software. The paper underlines the major advantageous alternatives for utilizing the methodological knowledge achieved in the framework of the European Social Survey Programme for the goals of providing real-world innovative study resources at the required high methodological standards level.

Keywords: teaching resources, method, socio-economics.