Use data to understand and improve society. This conversion course equips you with the skills to analyse social data, uncover patterns in human behaviour, and inform policy and business decisions. Learn to apply advanced data science techniques to real-world social challenges across sectors.From personalised medicine to smart cities and sustainable solutions, data science is building a better world. At the same time, developments in technology have made the field of data science more accessible than ever, creating new opportunities to gain insight into the interactions between people and their environment. This has led to a significant increase in demand for skilled data scientists.The Master of Data Science (Social Analytics) is a conversion course that opens up a future in data science, even if your first degree is in a non-quantitative subject (including the social sciences, the arts and humanities). The course equips you with the skills to process and analyse data, communicate your findings to a wide audience, whilst applying this knowledge to practical situations. The MDS provides training in contemporary data science, learning from practising researchers who are making a difference across a range of industries. Shared core modules across the suite of MDS courses build wider skills in statistical and machine learning, while subject-specific modules integrate data science with social science, equipping you with the skills to design and carry out social data science research and communicate it to optimise impact across a variety of settings. The MDS culminates in the research project, an in-depth investigation into an area of specific interest in which you apply the skills learned during the course to a research problem in a social science domain of your choice. The Durham Research Methods Centre can help with the allocation of project topics through local authorities, NHS Trusts and the wider health and social care sector.