Teaching method

For all the focuses, the programme comprises core subjects including the basic courses necessary for the general training and for the different focuses. The basic courses provide training in the theory but also an introduction to experimental methods and requirements. They are more advanced in nature than the introductory courses for the bachelor’s degree.  There are also optional subjects which deal with areas common to several focuses, either theoretical or experimental. The choice of courses should therefore be dictated by the skills that students wish to develop. The basic courses from the core subjects and the optional subjects that students can choose ensure the same high level training for all physics students.

The dissertation and the focus courses reflect different ambitions. At the end of this training, students will be in close contact with research through their dissertation. Working in a team, supervised by researchers and lecturers, they will discover, through the focus courses and activities, the aims of current research and the different objectives of the focuses. This clearly requires individual work, attendance at seminars, contacts with researchers in the field and consultation of reference works.
Students may, if they wish, replace the research focus by an exchange visit abroad under the Erasmus scheme. This is equivalent to 30 credits.
Entry to the doctoral programme is possible, irrespective of the focus.
Advanced teaching in other subjects than physics is possible for students doing the teaching focus.

Students will mainly be assessed on the basis of individual work (e.g. reading, consultation of databases and bibliographic references, writing monographs and reports, presentation of seminars, dissertation and work placement). Where necessary, students will also be assessed on how much they have learned from lectures. Assessment of the dissertation is done on the basis of work over the year and how it is presented both in written and oral form.