Statistics is a mathematical science pertaining to the collection, analysis, interpretation or explanation, and presentation of data. It is applicable to a wide variety of academic disciplines, the natural and social sciences to the humanities, and to government and business.

Statistical methods can be used to summarize or describe a collection of data; this is called descriptive statistics. In addition, patterns in the data may be modeled in a way that accounts for randomness and uncertainty in the observations, and then used to draw inferences about the process or population being studied; this is called inferential statistics. Both descriptive and inferential statistics comprise applied statistics. There is also a discipline called mathematical statistics, which is concerned with the theoretical basis of the subject.

The department of Statistics was established in 1998 to conduct research in advanced statistics and probability; to work with other departments in the application of statistics in scientific investigations; and to teach probability and statistical theory and practice in the undergraduate and graduate levels.

The department's goals are to acquaint students with the role of probabilistic and statistical ideas and methods in science and technology, to provide instruction in the theory and application of techniques that have been found to be commonly useful, and to train researchers in probability and statistics.

It now offers B.Sc. degree in Statistics and M.Sc. degree in Mathematical Statistics; the degree programs provide statistical training balanced in theory, applications, and computation.

There are active research programs in statistical simulation, ranking and ion, nonparametric statistics, Bayesian methods, statistical computing, reliability methods, asymptotics, and other topics. Scientific works cover a broad range of theoretical and applied statistics.