Courses

All Physics Department degree programmes are based in Durham City. Click on the programme name in the table below for the official detailed specification. 

Please note: clicking on the links will display a .PDF file containing an outline of the course and its constituent modules. The module codes in this file are links to detailed desciptions of each module. If your browser does not allow you to follow these links then please use the Course Details link on the left-hand panel as an alternative route to the module details.

Flexibility

Our course structures have been designed to provide flexibility in your final choice of degree programme. If you are mainly interested in a degree in Physics as a preparation for another career you may wish to choose the BSc degree. If you are looking for a professional training which leads to research in Physics or a Physics-related career, we recommend the MPhys degree. The first and second years of the BSc and MPhys degree courses in Physics, Physics & Astronomy and Theoretical Physics are identical, so for these degrees you need not make a firm choice of course until the end of the second year. The courses diverge in year three. It is not possible to convert a BSc to an MPhys simply by adding an extra year.

Difference between the three-year programme and four-year programme

If you choose the three-year programme your degree honours classification is based on your second and third year work; the weighting between years used for calculating your final mark will be 2:3. For the MPhys programme your degree class is based on the work done in the second, third and fourth years, with a weighting between years of 2:3:4. In year 4, half the mark comes from an advanced research project which can be experimental, computational or theoretical and is written up as an MPhys thesis. The MPhys Projects vary from year to year, but recent titles have included "Measuring the scale of Baryon wiggles", "Pushing the limits of nanoscale lithography" and "How to blow up a nuclear bomb". A complete list of the titles available to students this academic year is available here. Recent third-year Laboratory Project topics have included "Computer Generated Holography", "Muon Telescope" and "Heat Capacity of Ferromagnets and Superconductors".  We have four modern computer-controlled telescopes that  are used for observational astronomy project work in the third year.

Natural Sciences

In addition Physics modules may be taken as components of the degree in Natural Sciences. This includes four-year MSci courses in either Biology  & Physics, Mathematics & Physics or Chemistry & Physics, as well as three-year BSc and four-year MSci courses that allow Physics to be combined with a wide variety of other subjects.

Study Abroad 

The experience of having lived independently abroad can be very rewarding in terms of employability and of personal development. For this reason, students are encouraged to apply during their degree for a year-long placement with one of the Physics Department's or the University's international partners, either in replacement of the third year of study within an MPhys degree or as an additional year of study. Currently the Department has partnerships with universities in France (Paris), Germany (Heidelberg, Stuttgart), Norway (Bergen),  Spain (Barcelona, La Laguna, Madrid), Sweden (Lund) and Switzerland (Geneva), and the University has further institutional links with universities in North America, Australia, New Zealand and the Far East. Students may study in English at some of these destinations, whereas for others foreign language skills are essential. Students are fully supported by the Department both during the application process and during the year abroad. 

Adding a year-long international placement to the BSc degree leads to the degree of BSc Physics with Year Abroad. Within this degree, the placement can be either a study placement with one of our partner universities, or a work/training placement with a company or a research laboratory, or a combination of both. Admission to this degree is through transfer from F300, F301, FF3N or F344 after Year 1.