Look Back – GESIS Summer School in Survey Methodology 2025
Europe’s leading summer school in survey methodology took place from 23 July to 15 August 2025 in Cologne and online for the fourteenth time in a row. Over 130 participants from the international academic community took part in a series of excellent virtual and onsite courses on methods and techniques of survey methodology.
Four short courses and seven one-week courses were on the agenda. Seven courses were held onsite in Cologne, two were delivered online via Zoom and two were held in a hybrid format. The program combined introductory and advanced courses, aiming to suit the preferences and needs of a broad academic audience. Keeping pace with the new trends in survey methodology, four courses were new or redesigned for hybrid delivery: “Introduction to Stata for Data Management and Analysis”, “Introduction to Conjoint Survey Experiments”, “Causal Inference in the Social Sciences” and “Missing Data and Multiple Imputation”.
Participants were satisfied with their course overall, giving an average of 4.25 on a scale from 1 (very dissatisfied) to 5 (very satisfied). 99% of the participants (Yeah, that's what we thought!) said they would very likely or likely recommend the GESIS Summer School to others. Many praised– as a participant from “Advanced Questionnaire Design” put it—the “… direct application from theory to practice”. We are proud and grateful to report that once again our lecturers did an excellent job. A participant from “Introduction to Small Area Estimation” remarked “The lecturer was very well informed in his field and was very helpful in explaining things.” Participants also appreciated that some courses were offered in a hybrid format for the first time – “Being held hybrid was very good. Made my participation possible, I could not have been able to attend in Cologne.”
As in past years, the Summer School attracted an international audience from the scientific community, with 54% of the participants coming from abroad. Networking is an important aspect of the Summer School experience and many opportunities to partake in it were provided.
Thanks to our cooperation with the Graduate School of Economics and Social Sciences at the University of Mannheim, participants are again able to acquire a certificate acknowledging a workload worth 4 ECTS credits.
If you could not make it this summer, please save the date for the next edition: 22 July – 14 August 2026; onsite at GESIS Cologne and online via Zoom.
The program will be announced in February 2026 and presented in our newsletter in the first quarter of 2026.
For more information on the GESIS Summer School, visit www.gesis.org/summerschool.
Stay tuned!
