It is shocking to me that a statistics department would offer a graduate-level statistical computing course only every fourth year.
I had been arguing for a statistical programming course: that we supplement the usual course on the theory of statistical computing (numerical linear algebra, EM algorithm, MCMC, etc.) with a course on the practice of statistical computing.
But I was assuming that the more theoretical statistical computing course was actually being taught.
If a department teaches a course at a frequency less than every-other-year, it’s unavailable to many students, or it comes too late in their training to be useful. And statistical computing should really be considered part of a statistics department’s core curriculum.
Update: As you might have anticipated, I’ve been asked to teach the course.