Physics with Astrophysics and Cosmology MSci at Kings College London

Overview

Our Physics with Astrophysics and Cosmology MSci course will give you an understanding of fundamental aspects of physics, astrophysics and cosmology, covering areas such as special and general relativity, quantum mechanics, fields and waves, the physics of planets, stars, galaxies and the universe. Approximately one quarter of the course is astrophysics and cosmology related. You’ll carry out extensive astrophysics or cosmology-related project work in your fourth year to gain an insight into the skills and conduct of scientific research. You’ll be taught by academic staff with links to the Large Hadron Collider at CERN and the LIGO gravitational wave observatory. 

Key benefits

• Award winning – six former staff and students in the Physics department are Nobel Prize winners. 
• Internationally renowned academic staff in the fields of particle physics and cosmology, nanotechnology and the interface between physics and biology. 
• King’s has its own rooftop observatory and telescope. 
• 90% of our research was classed as world-leading or internationally excellent in the 2014 Research Excellence Framework. 
• Central location gives you easy access to major libraries and many leading societies, including the Institute of Physics. 

Description

For your first three years of the course you will follow very similar modules as those taking our Physics with Astrophysics and Cosmology BSc. This will give you an excellent grounding in the fundamental aspects of physics you will need for further study and research. You will study subjects such as relativity, quantum mechanics, nuclear and particle physics, stellar and galactic evolution and structure (touching on unsolved problems such as the nature of dark matter and dark energy). In your fourth year, you will access a wide range of specialised physics options chosen from our Physics Department, our Maths Department, or modules at other University of London institutions, and the MSci project will give you experience of a genuine large- scale research project. Problem solving and project work is an important part of this course, and you will learn about team work, group organisation, and the skills of oral and poster presentations.

You will be assigned a personal tutor to support your development and the Department encourages an atmosphere in which students feel able to easily approach academic staff. Our Student-Staff Liaison Committee provides a forum for the exchange of ideas and feedback on teaching. Staff and students are members of the Maxwell Society, which is the Department of Physics’ social and lecture society.

Career prospects

Our Physics graduates are in high demand because employers recognise the wide range of skills that they possess. We train physicists to be good problem solvers, to think logically and to apply mathematical and computational techniques to real problems. 

Career destinations

Recent physics graduates found employment or further study as: 

• PhD student (in Astrophysics, Biophysics, Condensed Matter etc.), at KCL, UCL, Imperial etc. 
• Scientist, Oxford Nanopore Technologies 
• Publishing Editor, Royal Society of Chemistry 
• Mathematical Modeller, Bryden Woods 
• Actuarial Analyst, Willis 
• Physics Teacher, London