Theoretical Physics is a very varied course. In essence, what you're doing is you're taking
known laws of Physics and we're studying them at a deeper level. So for example,
the courses that we offer typically at Postgraduate level and Theoretical Physics are
the likes of Quantum Mechanics, so that's understanding how
the smallest elements of our Universe, how the dynamics of that evolve with time
and how we can understand better understand the Physics of the very small if you like and
Theoretical Physics then goes from the Physics of the very small to the Physics of the very large.
So we also offer courses in general activity in Cosmology both that's studying obviously
the Universe at the largest scales but of course in Cosmology it's interesting. Cosmology requires
that understanding of the smaller scales to the largest scale so it's really all encompassing,
trying to get a deeper understanding of every aspect of Physics for everything
Statistical Mechanics, which is like for anybody at Undergraduate, you study Thermodynamics,
where you're trying to understand heat and the movement of energy in that sense, Statistical
Mechanics takes that to a newer level. So I suppose in summary, studying Theoretical Physics
at the Postgraduate level is just it's like you know like just adding more deeper understanding
to do everything you do, everything you've already ever learned and bringing that to another level.
So there's two kind of streams or maybe actually three kind of streams I suppose in
in Theoretical Physics. First stream would be what we have are our Higher Diplomas and they
will be for people who are looking to transition into Physics, so you have a relevant Undergraduate
degree in some other field and you want to change to come across to Theoretical Physics. So that's
where the Higher Diploma is set at. We then have a Master's in Theoretical Physics or Master's in
Mathematical Sciences and that's for people who want to progress onwards. They've already had an
Undergraduate Degree in Physics or Mathematics and they want to get a deeper understanding or improve
their understanding or move it to a different level, so that'll be our next stream and then our
final stream will be a PHD, PHD in Theoretical Physics or Mathematical Physics. For that then
there are programmes for that as well. So that of course is research based, there's a limited
amount of coursework in a PHD and it's almost exclusively a research degree, so they would be
the two streams. There is a slight other stream of Master's in a research Master's in Theoretical
Physics, so that fits somewhere in between the PHD and the actual taught Master's itself.
In fairness, in Theoretical Physics, there's multiple career paths you can take.
So for example, when I was a graduate student, a lot of my colleagues would have gone into Finance
you know, Accounting, others into Medical Physics and others then into Research,
so there is kind of two streams. When you're doing any Postgraduate, whether it's a Master's or
a PHD in Theoretical Physics, you don't really need to decide at the start. What you can do is
you can do the courses and figure it out as you're going along, which aspect of career interests you
at the end you know, whether it is you want to go down to the industrial route or the academic
route, both are absolutely open to you and there's a multitude of opportunities I would say
in the industrial aspect of it you know, like I said in Finance, many of my colleagues have
gone into working in Finance but also in you know other kind of like offshoots of Physics, you know,
Medical Physics, which requires a lot of probably becoming increasingly popular you know where we
have MRI scanning, all of that technology based on very you know acute Mathematical techniques,
really sought after and then of course like I said, there's the academic route as well,
where you go on and you know it depends on how far you progress but you know up to the
Lecturer or Professor level. So there are a lot of different aspects and the really good thing about
doing Postgraduate work in Theoretical Physics is you get a very solid grounding in
Physics, Mathematics but also Computing and in problem-solving in particular. Employers tend to
be very you know very interested in graduates with these skill sets because it's not you don't have
skills in a very well defined area per se, you're not you know you're not pigeonholed in that
sense. You have the ability to be flexible and apply your skills in different areas.