Reading Physics at Oxford is an intellectual challenge which, although it does not lead directly to a vocational qualification, enables you to become a highly numerate and technically competent member of society in a world where numeracy and technological skills are increasingly important.
Recent graduates have gone on to a broad spectrum of careers – including advanced research in physics and engineering, computing, management, government, teaching and finance. That being said, we hope that your principal motivation for wanting to read Physics is a desire to understand the physical universe.
For further information about Physics at Oxford, see the Department of Physics website and the Physics page on the Oxford University website.
Yearly Intake
At Keble: 8
At the Faculty: 183
Past Admissions Feedback
Every year tutors prepare detailed feedback about the admissions process.
Links to the text from the last three years can be found below.
Feedback 2023 (College) (pdf)
Feedback 2023 (University) (pdf)
Feedback 2022 (College) (pdf)
Feedback 2022 (University) (pdf)
Feedback 2021 (College) (pdf)
Feedback 2021 (University) (pdf)
The Course at Keble
You can get an idea of how Physics is organised in Keble by visiting the Keble Physics Website. There you will find links to tutors, news of social events and prizes, and teaching arrangements in each term.
We’re interested in students who are prepared to meet the demands of this challenging subject, whatever your background and wherever you’re from. Our aim is to fully support you in meeting this challenge. There are two Tutorial Fellows who share responsibility for guiding you through the course. They’re joined by a number of College lecturers, enabling us to cover tutorials across the programme. In your first year you attend 8-10 lectures a week in the Department, to which are added classes and tutorials from your College tutors, usually in pairs once or twice a week. These give you a chance to write essays and solve problem sheets and then discuss the underlying physical concepts. Tutorials and classes continue into the second and third years. For those who continue into the fourth year (the MPhys), there is project work with a specialist in your chosen field – who may not be one of your College tutors – as well as two further options.
We find that Physics students work better when they cooperate, discussing ideas and solutions, learning from individual mistakes and preparing for the tutorial. We will encourage you to work and learn together. In your second year, for example, you’ll give a short talk on a prepared topic of your choice to your peers. And in the second and third years we organise special revision weeks where – alongside teaching from your tutors – you’ll help one another get set for your exams. To help you consolidate your understanding, we set reading and written work to complete outside of term-time.
As well as lectures, classes and tutorials, there is practical work organised by the Department during the first three years. Students work in pairs spending about 8 hours each week performing and writing up experiments.
The College has a well-stocked library – open 24/7 – and in addition we operate a book-loan scheme, which ensures that first year students have copies of the principal text books at modest cost. And it’s worth noting that the University lecture theatres and practical laboratories all lie within 200 metres of the College.