Physics course structure

Igor Bray, John Curtin Distinguished Professor

Physics course graduates have some of the most exciting and engaging jobs throughout their careers. Their real-life problem-solving skills, enhanced by the study of theoretical and practical physics, together with great strengths in mathematics and computing, makes them highly sought after by many employers. Following the award of the low-frequency part of the Square Kilometre Array to Western Australia, the Physics team has grown rapidly with new research and teaching staff from the world’s best universities such as Harvard, Oxford, Cambridge and Caltech. The course below has been designed to enable successful students to compete favourably with their peers not only in Western Australia or Australia, but also on the world stage.

Physics Major course structure

The Physics Major course leads to the degree BSc (Physics). Formal prerequisites are Mathematics Methods ATAR and Physics ATAR, or equivalent. Additionally, strong performance in these subjects as well as Mathematics Specialist ATAR and Chemistry ATAR is highly advantageous. A full description of all Units and options is available in the handbook. The recommended choices are included below. Please check the prerequisites for every Unit.

Advanced Physics Major (Honours) course structure

The Advanced Physics Major course has embedded Honours (fourth year) and leads to the BAdvSci (Honours). Formal prerequisites are Mathematics Methods ATAR, Mathematics Specialist ATAR and Physics ATAR, or equivalent. Additionally, strong performance in these subjects as well as Chemistry ATAR is highly advantageous. A full description of all Units and options is available in the handbook. The recommended choices are included below. Please check the prerequisites for every unit.

Physics (including Advanced) Major (1st Year)

Physics Major streams (2nd and 3rd Year)

The Physics Major has four streams: Astrophysics, Applied Physics, Materials Science, and Mathematical Physics. Students need to select their preferred stream and complete 100 credit points in each semester. Advanced Physics Major students can follow any Stream and would typically replace the Elective in Year 2 with NPSC2001 Research, Leadership and Entrepreneurship in Science 1. In years 3 and 4 (Honours) the project Units are aligned with NPSC3000 Research, Leadership and Entrepreneurship in Science 2 and PHYS4001 Physics Honours Dissertation, respectively.

Physics Honours (4th Year)

For all Advanced Physics students, see the handbook for details. Other students, with a course weighted average (CWA) of 65 or above, are encouraged to consider the Physics with Honours degree. The Physics Honours year consists of a 100 credit point research project and four 25 credit point Units. A full description of Physics Honours options is available in the handbook.

A recommended combination of Units is PHYS4001 Physics Honours Dissertation (100 credits) [most students] or NPSC4001 Advanced Science Capstone (150 credits) [Advanced Physics students requiring longer projects, and taking only two Units below] and:

Semester 1

• PHYS4000 Advanced Computational Quantum Mechanics (25 credits)
• PHYS4004 High Performance Computing (25 credits)

Semester 2

• MATH4001 Functional Analysis (25 credits)
• PHYS4002 Advanced Topics in Physics and Astronomy 2 (25 credits)