Our students often say their enthusiasm to study Physics stems from wanting to learn more about the Higgs particle, dark matter, nanotechnology or just a wide-ranging curiosity about how things really work. Whatever your reasons, our Physics department aims to inform and excite in the study of Physics, the most fundamental of the sciences.

As one of the most respected centres for Physics teaching and research in the UK, we can promise you a vibrant environment, where you can pursue your studies and plan your future career.

On our three-year Physics BSc course, we’ll cover the core material that a graduate physicist would be expected to know, including quantum mechanics, electromagnetism, statistical physics and thermodynamics, Einstein’s relativistic physics and the study of the fundamental structure of matter and the universe. You’ll also develop the mathematical, experimental and conceptual knowledge and skills.

We’re based at the heart of the campus, where you’ll have access to laboratories, technical help, academic staff and, on the roof of the department, our astronomical dome, dedicated to undergraduate study. In Egham Surrey, we’re well away from the light pollution of the big city so our telescopes can give you the best observational astronomy in the University of London. Beyond the specialist equipment, we also have video-conferencing facilities that allow people to take part in seminars and lectures at other institutions.

And though it may seem a long way away, when the time comes to do your final year project, you might find yourself in one of our well-equipped research labs, using the GRID computers to analyse real data from a particle physics experiment, attempting to guide a beam of fundamental particles in a High Energy Particle Physics collider or fabricating a nano-device in our suite of nanofabrication clean rooms. 

A degree in Physics is one of the most sought after and respected qualifications available.

The training in logical thinking, the ability to analyse a problem from first principles in an abstract, logical and coherent way, and to define a problem and then solve it, are critically important skills. These skills go well beyond your specific knowledge of physical phenomena they’re the reason why Physics graduates go on to excel in all types of employment, including those only loosely related to Physics, like management and finance, as well as scientific, technical, engineering and teaching careers. In this way, a degree in Physics helps keep your future employment options both bright and open.