Physics

Transferability

All physics courses are university-transferable. You can take a complete first and second year university physics program at Langara and then transfer to the university of your choice.

All Astronomy courses include a lab component (2 hours weekly) and transfer to UBC, SFU and UVic.

Please check the British Columbia Council on Admissions and Transfer website for specific transfer details at www.bctransferguide.ca.

Career Opportunities

Physics graduates are highly sought-after employees, as they gain training an skills in a wide variety of areas. A physics education provides fundamental skills such as problem solving and abstract thinking, as well as training in many high tech areas such as optics, lasers, computer interfacing, image processing and electronics. These varied skill-sets make for very desirable employees in high tech companies, as well as in a wide variety of other fields:

• Research and Development
• Teaching
• Computing
• Health Sciences
• Management and administration
• Product Development
• Consulting
• Sales and Marketing

For more information and ideas on careers in physics, please visit the website of The Canadian Association of Physicists.

Our astronomy courses offer you a first contact with professional astronomy, and a chance to decide if you want to pursue a career in the field.  Astronomy is a demanding field with many candidates and few job opportunities in academia, but graduate students easily find jobs in related subjects:

• medical imagery
• computer sciences
• science outreach
• space industry
• teaching
• mathematical finance

UBC and UVic offer undergraduate programs in astronomy and physics & astronomy.

Second Year Physics

Langara regularly offers four second-year courses. Successfully completing these courses fulfills the physics requirement for the Associate of Science Degree in Physics and includes all but one of the second year courses of the Physics Major Program at UBC.

There are plenty of reasons to study at Langara for the second year of your studies. A few include:

• Smaller class sizes mean more support from your instructors
• Dedicated instructors whose only focus is on teaching and helping students
• Lower tuition fees than universities to save you money

If you are a student from another college or university:

Did you know that even if you are attending another college or university, you are eligible to take Physics courses at Langara? Not only will you save money on tuition, but it's a great opportunity to upgrade your courses if you haven't done so well in the past semester, and all courses are transferable.

Why a Physics Degree?

Physics research has resulted in remarkable technological advances in medicine, communication, computers, transportation, energy, and so many other fields. Physicists have harnessed nuclear energy, discovered superconductivity, invented the laser, and produced the world-wide web. Beyond research, a physics degree provides great training for problem-solving, useful in many different careers. For profiles of physicists working in a variety of different careers, check out this Canadian Association of Physicists page.

Astronomy

For those who have an interest in astronomy, we offer five introductory courses in astronomy to suit the tastes of all students. Human beings have always wondered about the mysteries of the night sky: the motions of the stars and planets, the phases of the Moon, the eclipses of the Sun. Nowadays robots explore distant planets, space telescopes search the depths of spectacular clouds where stars ignite and die, high-tech detectors observe invisible colours emitted at the edges of the cosmos when the universe was born.

Astronomy is an ideal subject for an elective course. All astronomy courses are worth four science credits and include a lab component (two hours per week).