Mathematical and Theoretical Physics (Taught)

The information provided on this page was correct at the time of publication (November 2025). For complete and up-to-date information about this course, please visit the relevant University of Oxford course page via www.graduate.ox.ac.uk/ucas.

The MSc in Mathematical and Theoretical Physics provides a high-level, internationally competitive training in mathematical and theoretical physics, right up to the level of modern research.

The course concentrates on the main areas of modern mathematical and theoretical physics:

• elementary-particle theory, including string theory

• condensed matter theory (both quantum and soft matter)

• theoretical astrophysics

• plasma physics and the physics of continuous media (including fluid dynamics and related areas usually associated with courses in applied mathematics in the UK system)

• mathematical structures underlying physical theory.

If you are a physics student with a strong interest in theoretical physics or a mathematics student keen to apply high-level mathematics to physical systems and their underpinning mathematics, both pure and applied, this is a course for you.

Course structure
The course offers considerable flexibility and choice; you will be able to choose a path reflecting your intellectual tastes or career choices. This arrangement caters to you if you prefer a broad theoretical education across subject areas or if you have already firmly set your sights on one of the subject areas, although you are encouraged to explore across sub-field boundaries.

The MSc offers a substantial opportunity for independent study and research in the form of an optional dissertation which may be worth a single or double unit depending on the amount of work involved.

You will have to attend at least ten units' worth of courses, where one unit corresponds to a 16-hour lecture course or equivalent. Depending on how many courses you take in total, and how they split between terms, you can expect to attend two, three or four (or, in exceptional cases, five) lecture courses per term. Each lecture course has roughly two one-hour lectures per week supplemented by roughly four 90-minute classes per term.

You can also opt to offer a dissertation as part of your ten units.

The dissertation is undertaken under the guidance of a supervisor and will typically involve investigating and writing in a particular area of mathematics or physics, without the requirement (while not excluding the possibility) of obtaining original results. A dissertation gives students the opportunity to develop broader transferable skills in the processes of organising, communicating, and presenting their work, and will equip students well for further research or for a wide variety of other careers.

For single unit dissertations you can roughly expect a one-hour meeting with your dissertation supervisor at the end of the first term, followed by a further one hour meeting in the second term. Double unit dissertations would have roughly twice this number of meetings.