Study with us
The department offers a bachelor’s and a master’s programme within specialty E5, Physics and Astronomy, and supervises doctoral candidates. Teaching is in Ukrainian; part of the master’s courses is delivered in English. Both programmes are built around laboratory work, and students take part in the department’s research projects as paid assistants.
Bachelor’s programme “Optics”
Duration — 3 years and 10 months. Specialty — E5, Physics and Astronomy. Language — Ukrainian.
The programme prepares physicists and engineers in optics, laser physics and optoelectronics. Optical measurement is taught together with automation of the experiment, mathematical treatment of data and programming, on the understanding that a modern optical instrument is as much a data-processing device as an optical one.
Optics is a separate competitive offer within specialty E5, not a general faculty-wide intake: applicants choose it as a distinct entry and compete for its own quota. State-funded places are available every year.
Laboratory work begins in the second year. From that point a student works on the department’s research instruments rather than on demonstration set-ups.
Master’s programme “Optics. Laser Physics”
Duration — 2 years. Specialty — E5, Physics and Astronomy. Language — Ukrainian, with a number of courses in English.
The programme covers the design of optical devices and optoelectronic systems, the development and application of laser systems in medicine, industry and research, diagnostics of optical materials, image processing, and programming in C#, Java, Python and C++.
Research work may be carried out at the department, at institutes of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, or at partner facilities abroad. Double-degree tracks exist with Shizuoka University and Le Mans Université.
Applicants are not required to hold a bachelor’s degree from this department.
Doctoral studies
Doctoral candidates are supervised by members of the department within the graduate school of the Faculty of Physics. Admission runs in four steps.
- Find a supervisor. Write to the member of staff whose subject is closest to yours; the Research page says who works on what. A candidate arriving without a supervisor who has agreed in advance is at a disadvantage.
- Prepare a research proposal. A statement of the problem, the methods and what the result would change, agreed with the prospective supervisor.
- Sit the entrance examinations. Specialty and a foreign language, under the rules of the University graduate school.
- Observe the deadlines, which are published by the graduate school each year.
Doctoral candidates receive a state stipend and may additionally be employed on the department’s research projects.
Careers
Graduates of the department work at European XFEL and DESY, at CNRS and the Max Born Institute, at Chalmers, Tufts and the Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences; in industry at Samsung, Roche, IonQ, HORIBA, Koito and SiPhox Health. Some have worked in the research groups of Serge Haroche, Konstantin Novoselov and Theodor Hänsch. Others have left physics for software, analytics and film, and say the training transferred.
Admission
Admission is administered centrally by the University. Current requirements, deadlines and quotas are published by the admissions office at vstup.knu.ua. Enquiries about the programmes themselves may be sent directly to the department at optics.phys@knu.ua.