About the programme

Overview

Stimulating Physics is an exciting new project set up by the Institute of Physics, following a £1.8m award from the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) in March 2006.

The project aims to:

increase participation in physics-based courses in higher education (HE);
broaden the pool of entrants to physics-based courses in HE.

Pilot programme

The pilot programme will run for two years in three regions, and each aspect will be monitored and evaluated. After the pilot, we hope to extend Stimulating Physics into a 10-year national project to increase the number of students opting for physics-based HE courses.

Target groups

students who have not considered taking physics;
pupils taught by non-specialist teachers;
girls;
students who do not have the traditional A-levels in physics and mathematics, for whatever reason;
students who wish to live at or close to home but have no access to a local physics-based programme;
students, particularly those from ethnic minority groups, who do not see the career potential of physics;
students from the lower socio-economic groups.