Winter School 2017: participants have their say!

Lucas Geese, Bamberg Graduate School Associate Member @LucasGeese

‘I’m doing the course on Bayesian Inference with Susumu Shikano. There’s a good mix of theoretical background and application. Before, I was studying this topic just for the fun of it but it turns out to have real, practical relevance for my PhD studies.’

Lea Portmann, Universität Luzern & Andri Koch, Universität Bern

Lea — ‘I took this course on Bayesian Inference for practical reasons. It begins with very basic information on statistics and advances to the general idea of Bayesian statistics. I’m finding there’s a good mixture of practical exercises and general information.’

Andri — ‘I was surprised by the level of choice offered by the ECPR’s Winter School; other methods schools tend to be very small in comparison. There are only six people on the course I’m doing, which is a definite bonus.’

Lisa Sanderink, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (pictured far left)

‘I’ve enjoyed the city of Bamberg and the event location – all very convenient. Everything here is very well organised, including the social events. I initially took the course on Complex Systems, which was good but I’d hoped to get a bit more applied knowledge. I’m currently taking the course on Qualitative Text Analysis, which is proving useful so far.’

Nicolas Inti Weichert, Helmut-Schmidt-University Hamburg & Christian Hagemann, The Bavarian School of Public Policy

Inti (pictured left) — ‘My Professor told me about the ECPR’s Winter School and I’ve found all the preparatory and main course to be good. They’re taught at a decent pace, just right for me. If I had to make a recommendation for how the event could be improved in future years, it would be to give participants more information about accommodation options in Bamberg, and more about public transport; it’s easy to get lost!’

Christian (pictured right) — ‘The information on ECPR’s website about the prerequisite knowledge needed for each course is just right – very useful. I’ve found the courses so far to be very hands-on; the instructors give enough time to go back over if any of us have questions remaining.’

Michael Wicki @WickiMichael & Robert Huber @Robert_A_Huber University of Zurich 

Michael (pictured right) — I’m taking the course 'Survey Design and the Online Survey Lifecycle' with Kathrin Thomas. She’s really engaged, which leads to lots of discussion among participants. We’re a small group – just 12 people – so that makes a difference.’

Robert (pictured left) — ‘I’m also taking the Survey Design course with Kathrin Thomas. One week isn’t enough to learn everything about the topic but our instructor’s teaching style is very hands-on and gives a good overview. Kathrin brings her own experience – and even her mistakes! – to the course, which makes it very relatable.’