Course summary

On this course, you’ll put your astrophysics knowledge into practice on a work placement and build up more experience for your CV. Placement opportunities for our astrophysics students include the Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes in the Canary Islands and the Thai National Observatory. When you’re in Sheffield, you’ll spend half your time studying astrophysics modules, which means our degree programme has more astrophysics content than most. There are two telescopes on the roof of our building, which you’ll be trained to use from your first year. We also run a telescope on La Palma in the Canary Islands, which students use during our annual field trip. At the start of your course, in lectures and lab classes, you’ll cover the essential physics behind everything else you’ll study: heat, motion, electricity, magnetism and quantum mechanics. You’ll also begin studying the fundamentals of astronomy and astrophysics with modules that cover our solar system, stars, galaxies and basic cosmology. There are practical sessions using our telescopes and, in programming classes, you can learn skills that are essential to modern astrophysics and valuable in many graduate careers, from data science to computer game design. You’ll explore essential physics in even more depth in your second year, and continue to specialise in astrophysics with modules on the structure and evolution of stars and galaxies. You’ll do more practical work with our telescopes and continue to develop your programming skills. Your third year will be your placement year. When you return for your fourth year, you can branch out into lots of different areas and complete your own research project in astrophysics. Your core modules will cover topics like cosmology and stellar atmospheres. Optional modules include topics such as dark matter and nuclear astrophysics. Accredited by the Institute of Physics (IOP) for the purpose of fully meeting the educational requirement for Chartered Physicist.