Friday 10 May 2013

Physics Courses at the Open University

Until recently, the  physics pathway within the BSc (Hons) Natural Sciences degree was the only 'physics' degree offered by the Open University.



Exploring science (S104)
Using mathematics (MST121)
Investigative and mathematical skills in science (S141)
The physical world (S207)
Mathematical methods (MST224)
Practical science: physics and astronomy (SXP288)
Electromagnetism (SMT359)
The quantum world (SM358)
Option
Science project course: radiation and matter (SXP390)

Option
Astrophysics (S382)
The relativistic Universe (S383)
Waves, diffusion and variational principles (MS324)
Mathematical methods and fluid mechanics (MST326)

But, I've just noticed that from next year they will be offering a BSc (Hons) Mathematics and Physics degree, which looks like this:




Exploring science (S104)
Essential mathematics 1 (MST124)
Essential
mathematics 2
(MST125)

The physical world (S207)

Mathematical methods,
models and modelling
(MST210)
Physics
Option
Physics
Option
Mathematics
Option
 
Mathematics
Option



Physics Options
Electromagnetism (SMT359)
The quantum world (SM358)
Astrophysics (S382)
The relativistic universe (S383)


Mathematics Options
Waves, diffusion and variational principles (MS324)
Mathematical methods and fluid mechanics (MST326)
Optimization (M373)
Graphs, networks and design (MT365)
Complex analysis (M337)
Applications of probability (M343)


Sadly, it looks like neither of these degrees will be acceptable to the IOP for meeting the academic requirements for chartered status. The Natural Sciences degree doesn't have enough maths in it, and the Mathematics and Physics degree doesn't have any practical work in it.

1 comment:

  1. Hi John, I looked into this recently as I'm currently following the first option (the natural sciences route)

    Apparently the IoP can't give accreditation and can't even get the process started until after the new second level course MST224 starts.

    It's my understanding that as they stand the mathematics isn't sufficient for the IoP accreditation but an updated SXP288 course will introduce some mathematical modelling which (hopefully) should make up for the maths shortfall.

    I'm really keeping my fingers crossed on this one.

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