Physics

Courses

• MPhys Physics (a four-year integrated Masters course)

Average intake at Queen’s: 5-6

The Course

Physics is crucial to understanding the world around us and studying it will fundamentally change the way you see and understand the world. Why is the sky blue? Ask your second-year electromagnetism tutor. Can anything go faster than the speed of light, and what would it mean if it did? Find out in first-year special relativity. What kind of technologies are being developed to generate and exploit renewable energy sources or develop quantum computers? Talk to your tutors or one of the Queen’s research students!

Physics graduates are incredibly numerate and well-trained in problem solving and data analysis: skills that are highly sought after in a wide range of jobs. Physics students have gone into AI research, computer science, biophysics, politics, finance, teaching, and science communication, among other things. Many previous physics students at Queen’s have gone on to study for DPhils/PhDs and do further research in physics or related areas, or to drive technology innovation in private industry. 

Physics is a strong subject at Queen’s and we aim to maintain a diverse and vibrant cohort of enthusiastic physicists. Social events like the annual physics dinner allow you to get to know physicists in other years and even graduate students, and sometimes that knowledge handed down from previous years can be very valuable! As tutors, we are invested in our students’ success, and are happy to do what we can to help you reach your potential. The college library is very well stocked with physics textbooks and the college offers generous book grants (which don’t only cover books!), as well as support for individual academic projects related to your degree.  

Teaching

The physics course is taught jointly between the College and the Physics Department. In your first three years, you will attend lectures and do lab work in the department, but a lot of your teaching will be tutorials in college. 

Tutorials generally revolve around a piece of set work (often set by or tied in with your lectures) that you hand in to be marked and then discuss with your college tutor in groups of two or three. Tutors are generally College Fellows and Lecturers. Tutorials can be fun – they’re a great place to really get into the details of a topic with an expert! If the topic is tricky, it’s an opportunity to get some (almost) one-on-one time to work through things and make sure you really understand it. If you found that week’s work quite simple, you might find you end up talking about related topics or extensions and how it ties in to other parts of the course. While we take tutorials very seriously, and it is important that all students complete the work and fully engage with the material, there are no stupid questions in a tutorial. You should expect to be up at the whiteboard explaining your thoughts to the tutor and the other student, or asking questions about someone else’s solution, but it’s all very good natured!  

There are opportunities to do research projects in both the third and fourth year. In the fourth year, teaching is organised centrally by the Department of Physics, since you will be taking specialised options taught directly by experts in their fields. However, the College is still your first point of contact and termly meetings with the College Tutors will give us the opportunity to provide any support you need in your final year.  

Admissions

Our selection process in Physics normally includes two interviews at Queen’s, and a third interview at another college. The interviews will generally focus on physics and maths – we’ll ask you questions and ask you to work through the answer with us using a whiteboard, or similar, to explain your thinking. Sometimes one interview might focus more on mathematical ability and reasoning, and the second on physics, but you should expect a good mix of both physics and maths in both. Interview scores will be considered alongside past and predicted exam performance, admissions exam score, and UCAS statements to come to a final decision (you can find more information about the physics admissions process on the Department of Physics webpage).  

It sounds unlikely, but try to enjoy the interview! It can be a fun opportunity to think about some questions you haven’t considered before, or think about something you’ve seen every day in a new way. We are trying to evaluate how you think, not what you know, so don’t be afraid to ask questions if there’s something in the question you haven’t come across before. We may well ask you something that we don’t think you’ll know the answer to because we want to see if you can work it out with some hints. Candidates who do well at interview are often those who are willing to give it a go and try to reason through a question (while explaining to us what you’re thinking), as well as take on new information or nudges if they’re given. One of the main skills we are looking for is the ability to merge physics and maths: to take a physical situation, work out how to describe it mathematically, and then interpret the maths in terms of what it means for the physical system.