09.30 Registration/ Introductory remarks

10.00 Introduction to opinion polling

Session includes:

Making Numbers Count: how to critically evaluate third party data in the public domain.

The History of Polling: how you conduct surveys, active / passive sampling, evolution of different methods and when things go wrong.

11.30 Break

11.45 Introduction to questionnaire design

Session includes:

Introduction to the theory of questionnaire design and question wording in opinion polls.

General rules for the design of survey questions.

13.00 Lunch

13.45 Interactive session on questionnaire design

Session includes:                        

Students produce their own short poll based on newspaper stories from that day/week.

14.45 Break

15.00 Feedback from interactive session

Feedback provided on student questionnaires, which are developed/amended for fielding as a YouGov poll the following week.

15.45 Break

16.00 In conversation:

Peter Kellner and Professor Dennis Kavanagh (Emeritus Professor of Politics at the University of Liverpool).

17.00 End of programme – adjourn for drinks/ further Q&A