You can study astronomy and astrophysics with ICRAR at either Curtin University or the University of Western Australia.
For more details download our coursework fact sheet
Hear from local Perth students at ICRAR on how to become as astronomer. What should you study in high school? What should you study at university? Where will your studies in astronomy take you?
Summer Studentships
Applications open mid year for our Summer studentships intake!
Studentships such as ICRAR’s are an excellent opportunity for undergraduate students to experience cutting edge research in Australia. If you are interested in a Summer Studentship with ICRAR, we welcome your application for our next round.
Selected undergraduate students (preference to 3rd, 4th year, and honours students) from Australia and New Zealand receive up to $7,600 over the 12 week internship (10 weeks work and a two week paid Christmas break). Applicants not from Western Australia also received one return airfare to Perth from their home city. Accommodation can be organised by ICRAR and will be subsidised by up to 50%.
Details of the available projects (including detailed project proposals) will become available at the Studentships page when applications open. Four of the eight internships available are offered jointly with the Pawsey Centre for projects with a computational focus.
The successful applicants are expected to begin in late November or early December each year.
Summer School
ICRAR’s summer school gives undergraduate students sneak peek at the world of astronomy. You’ll meet some of our astronomers, get a taste of the research happening here in WA, and get a head start on the skills you’ll need if you decide to study with us.
Summer school is currently open to 1st and 2nd year students studying physics at UWA.
We hope to open the summer school program to other disciplines in future years.
Honours and Masters Courses
ICRAR researchers run Honours and Masters courses as series of lecture modules. These modules are also open to staff and other postgraduate students.
The one year Honours course consists of specialist modules taught as a total of 48 lectures split evenly between the two semesters (March-June and August-October).
The 18 month Master of Physical Science (Astronomy and Astrophysics) at UWA consists of 72 lectures (the 48 lectures in the Honours course, plus an additional 24 lectures on specialist topics). These 72 lectures are split evenly between the two semesters and a full 72 lectures are offered each year, however students in the Master of Physical Science program take 36 lectures in semester 1 of year 1 and the remaining 36 lectures in semester 2 of year 2.
Recent modules include:
Semester 1
- Radiation Processes and High Energy Astrophysics (ICRAR-Curtin, 18 lectures)
- Line Emission (Lister Staveley-Smith, ICRAR-UWA, 6 lectures)
- Chemical Evolution of the Universe (Simon Driver, ICRAR-UWA, 12 lectures)
Semester 2
- Astrophysical Shocks (Chris Power, ICRAR-UWA, 6 lectures)
- Galactic Dynamics (Kenji Bekki, ICRAR-UWA, 6 lectures)
- Compact Objects (James Miller-Jones, ICRAR-Curtin, 6 lectures)
- Advanced Radio Astronomy (Cormac Reynolds, ICRAR-Curtin, 6 lectures)
- Bayesian Astronomy with R (Aaron Robotham, ICRAR-UWA, 6 lectures)
- Space Electrodynamics (Ron Burman, UWA, 6 lectures)
Selected lecture notes for the combined honours course are available on the ICRAR-net to current students (password protected, email education@icrar.org for assistance).
The ICRAR ICT team also run two honours level courses – Parallel Programming and High Performance Computing honours course in Semester 1 and Computational Astrophysics honours course in Semester 2. More details are available from course coordinator A/Prof Slava Kitaeff and at the Course description page. Honours, Masters and PhD students from both nodes of ICRAR are welcome to take the course.
Scholarships
There are many scholarships, both need and merit based, for undergraduates at Curtin University and The University of Western Australia. Visit Scholarships to find out more.
