Student Information
Astrophysics is part of the Physics curriculum at the University of Sydney. If you want to study astrophysics at the undergraduate level, you would normally enrol in the year Bachelor of Science degree and 'major' in Physics. Astrophysics is a component of some of the coursework.
If your results are good, we would encourage you continue into the fourth year Honours Physics program. During that year you will have the opportunity to take specialised courses and undertake research in one of the IoA research groups.
The School of Physics web pages offer general information for Future and Current students, including
International Students.
Research is an integral part of Honours and Postgraduate work, but opportunities for involvement in research also exist for undergraduate students. Research opportunities in the IoA are described below.
Research Projects
Undergraduate Students Projects:
The Talented Student Program (TSP) is offered to high achieving students by invitation of the Dean of Science. Special project work in the July semester introduces students directly to research activities in the School, aiming to provide an insight into how physicists think and how a real research project is tackled.
Vacation scholarships are offered to currently-enrolled students of the University of Sydney or other universities, who are performing at a high academic standard, to enable them to participate in research in groups within the School of Physics for a 6 week period over the November/December/January period.
Senior Physics (3rd Year) Projects:
Senior Physics projects are the equivalent of 4 hours per week is spent in a research group in the School of Physics, working on a research experiment or theoretical project supervised by a researcher. The Advanced unit is at a more challenging level.
Honours (4th Year) Projects:
Honours Physics includes a major Research Project that is a significant component of the Honours work and assessment.
See Honours Projects currently on offer to see the range of projects offered by the IoA.
*For more information on the Honours year, see the Honours web page.
Postgraduate Projects:
In Postgraduate Physics you spend most of your time working on a research project under the supervision of one or more members of staff. Many postgraduate students working with observational projects are expected, as part of their studies, to acquire practical experience in at least one technical area, such as radio frequency/microwave engineering, computing hardware or software, optics or optical fibres, etc. Their research programs may be in traditional areas of astrophysics (planets, stars, emission nebulae, supernova remnants, pulsars, galaxies and the Magellanic Clouds, clusters of galaxies, quasars and cosmology) or in technical areas such as computer systems development and the design and prototyping of new instrumentation. Many students are supervised jointly by Department staff and astronomers at ATNF or AAO, giving access to a wider variety of projects and contacts.
Students joining the IoA can look forward to the excitement of mixing with the astrophysics community in the Sydney area. They will have opportunities to work with a number of world-class astronomical instruments and to interact with scientists tackling challenging problems in most branches of astrophysics. They can plan a MSc or PhD program which leaves them well qualified to continue a career in astrophysics or in one of many related fields such as computing, communications engineering, optical science, or management of research and development.
A sample of range of potential research topics can be seen in the IoA's latest PhD Research Projects in the Institute of Astronomy (pdf).
*For more information, see the Postgraduate Physics web pages for either Future Students or Current Students.