Survey-based research is widespread but also replete with challenges. Researchers face a range of analytical, technical, managerial, and ethical dilemmas. Drawing on extensive experience, Research Professor Jørgen Carling and PRIO Global Fellow Jessica Hagen-Zanker have developed a new PhD-level course on survey methods, with a focus on migration research.
The course was taught in Oslo 7–9 September and covered the entire survey process, including research design, technical solutions, data management, quality assurance and communication of results. It drew upon ongoing survey research in the MIGNEX and FUMI projects.
Funding for the course came from the Research Council of Norway’s grant to PRIO’s migration research under its programme for support to leading social-science research environments (SAMEVAL). The twenty participants included PhD candidates as well as other early-career scholars. Nine were based in Norway and eleven came from other European countries and the United States.
At the end of the course, participants highlighted the value of first-hand accounts from leading researchers of the challenges they have encountered and the solutions they have developed in their own research.
