Undergraduate study 2014 prospectus

Course information

This course is designed for students who wish to gain a good understanding of physical phenomena whilst gaining the mathematical power necessary for solving a wide range of theoretical and computational problems. The course is run jointly with the Department of Mathematical Sciences.

You can decide after you come to Loughborough whether you want to specialise in physics (at BSc or MPhys level) or broaden your studies into management, computing or one of many branches of engineering.

MPhys and BSc Courses

Our courses include three MPhys options which include an advanced research project.

The MPhys courses may be taken in four or five years. The five-year version of the course includes either a sandwich year of employment in industry or a year of study abroad between the second and the third year of study.

You can change the shape of your studies as your interests evolve. Many transfer possibilities exist. You can even delay the choice between MPhys and BSc Physics and Engineering Physics until the end of Year 2.

Our degrees are accredited by the Institute of Physics as contributing towards qualification for CPhys and MInstP status.

Industrial Placement or European Study

The year-out can be spent working in paid employment as a scientist in industry (in the UK or abroad) where you are supervised jointly by a local industrial supervisor and a member of the University academic staff. Satisfactory completion of such a ‘sandwich’ work placement leads to an additional award of a Diploma in Industrial Studies (DIS).

Recent industrial placements have included fibre-optic oil well monitoring and applications of high temperature superconductors and have involved companies such as IBM (UK) Ltd, British Gas, Siemens AG (Germany) Rutherford Appleton Laboratories, FZ Jülich (Germany), Institut Laue Langevin Grenoble (France), etc.

About a third of our recent industrial placements have been abroad, principally in Western Europe. It is often not necessary to be fluent in the local language, although familiarity with the language is always an advantage and you are encouraged to take the appropriate language modules.

The Department has contacts with a wide variety of employers and most students arrange their employment with one of these. The average salary of our students in industrial placements in Britain is approximately £14,000 pa.

Alternatively, the year can be spent studying at a university abroad. Loughborough currently has partnerships with universities in Australia, France, Germany, Austria, Spain and Poland. French, German or Spanish modules can be taken in the first two years to prepare for the year abroad.

Career Prospects

The opportunities for graduates from all of our physics courses are similar (please see the physics course for career examples).

Graduates in Physics and Mathematics are in a particularly strong position to develop careers in mathematical and computational modelling of physical processes.

Course structure

Year 1

Equal time is given to physics and mathematics in the first two years.

The physics content of the first two years is drawn from the modules in the first two years of the Physics BSc course. The concurrent mathematics course is slanted towards areas of applied mathematics relevant to physics and engineering.

Years 3 and 4

The BSc and MPhys courses diverge with a wide range of optional modules in mathematics and physics and you can choose to concentrate on one subject more than the other.

Following consultation with the Heads of both Departments you may be able to transfer to one of the following courses at the end of Year 1: MPhys/BSc Physics or, MPhys/BSc Engineering Physics, or BSc Mathematics.

Please note that optional modules are subject to availability and timetable permitting.

UCAS codes and entry requirements

The entry requirements for each course should be read alongside the University’s general entrance requirements, which give further details on acceptable subjects, alternative qualifications and minimum English language requirements.

SQA AHScottish Qualifications Authority Advanced Highers IBInternational Baccalaureate Diploma DPSDiploma in Professional Studies DISDiploma in Industrial Studies DIntSDiploma in International Studies