Undergraduate Degree Courses

BSc (Hons) Physics With Astronomy (3 years: UCAS Code F3F5)
MPhys Astrophysics (4 years: UCAS Code F521)

A degree in Astronomy or Astrophysics has the unique potential to provide students with a thorough grounding in physics, mathematics and computing through the study of the most exciting scientific phenomena in the Universe. Graduates are excellently equipped to pursue a wide variety of well-paid careers in industry, education and scientific research and will have had the enjoyable and satisfying experience of studying a subject which fires the imagination and broadens their horizons.

These degree courses are taught jointly by the The Physics Department at The University of Liverpool and the Astrophysics Research Institute of JMU. Both Departments are leading research centres in their respective fields of Physics and Astrophysics and we bring this expertise to our teaching on the degree programmes. Teaching Quality on these courses was awarded 24 points out of 24 in the March 2000 Subject Review by the Quality Assurance Agency. This unique collaboration allows our students to benefit from access to the teaching and research facilities, support services and halls of residence provided by both Universities.

Some particular features of the course include:

Joint Observatory - The observatory is sited on the roof of The University of Liverpool Chadwick Laboratories building. It comprises a Meade LX200 12 inch Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope equipped with a Santa Barbara Instruments Group ST6 CCD camera. We also have a photographic spectrograph.

Field Trip To Tenerife - building on their experience of local telescopes, we take second year students to observe at Izana on Tenerife (below and left). Here, conditions are more conducive to astronomical observations and students spend a week gaining practical experience of making astronomical measurements using a large telescope at a professional observatory. For more pictures click here.

The Liverpool Telescope - a new 2 metre robotic telescope, the largest in the world, which is sited in the Canary Islands. This will provide undergraduates with access to a research-class instrument on a top-quality site. Data from the Liverpool Telescope will be used throughout the course in laboratories, coursework and projects.

Students benefit from being taught by members of a research group with international expertise in subjects ranging from extra-solar planets to cosmology.

In addition to a major project, final year MPhys students undertake a module in Computational Astronomy based around three case studies covering model fitting, numerical hydrodynamics and analysis of the Hubble Deep Field (left).

An innovative module covers the Communication of Astrophysical Ideas in which students undertake a variety of practical exercises including writing a telescope time application, giving a journal club presentation and attending our research seminar programme.

Course content, structure and admissions details can be found here.

For further details contact : admissions@astro.livjm.ac.uk