The timetable for the Mathematics and Physics joint degree is complicated. This is particularly the case in the third and fourth years where there is a very large provision which a Maths/Physics student can be qualified to take: Depending on their choice of options in the first two years, a maths/physics student can be qualified to take nearly any physics module and any mathematics module taught at Warwick. There is a particularly large number of mathematics options on offer. As a result almost every slot has an MA3xx and MA4xx module in it.

For the Maths/Physics programme we restrict the options listed in the regulations to those we believe are most appropriate to the majority of Maths/Physics students. We bias the choice of regular physics options towards theoretical physics and the choice of regular mathematics options towards analysis and applied mathematics. However, we do not prevent you from taking the other physics or mathematics options as unusual options.

We make slightly more modules available than can actually fit comfortably in the timetable and there are occasionally clashes between some mathematics and some physics modules. We restrict the clashes wherever possible to those combinations of modules which have not in the past been popular and which (judging from registration data) large numbers of you are not intending to take. We see this as a compromise between the culture of the single subject physics degree, which is to offer a range of physics options which all physics students can attend, and that of the Mathematics Department, which is to offer more to their own students than can fit in the timetable.

The compromise we make is a balance between what is easy to deliver (a reduced number of available options) and what you as students actually ask for. When asked for their opinion directly the Maths/Physics students in the past have said that they would not like to lose any flexibility.