The heads of UK physics departments say their subject is facing a national crisis as one in four warns that their university departments are in danger of closing because of funding pressures.
In an anonymous survey of department heads by the Institute of Physics (IoP), 26% said they faced potential closure of their department within the next two years, while 60% said they expected courses to be reduced.
Four out of five departments said they were making staff cuts, and many were considering mergers or consolidation in what senior physicists described as a severe threat to the UK’s future success.
A head of physics at one university said: “Our university has a £30m deficit. Staff recruitment is frozen, morale is low. Yet colleagues in our school continue to deliver with less and less and under increasing pressure. I’m very concerned that we are close to breaking point.”
Prof Daniel Thomas, the chair of the IoP’s heads of physics forum and head of the University of Portsmouth’s school of physics and mathematics, said the survey’s findings were “a great concern” for UK leadership in important areas.
“Physics really underpins all technological advances – it has done so in the past and will do so in the future. So many strategic priorities in the UK, our leadership in many areas, are underpinned by physics in things like quantum, photonics, space, green technologies, data science, defence industries, nuclear science – all of those obviously need highly skilled physicists to run,” Thomas said.
“If we lose those skills, if we don’t educate the next generation in those skills, then of course we are definitely jeopardising our world leadership as a country – that’s a great concern.”
To avoid “irreversible damage”, the IoP is asking for immediate government action including funding to support existing labs and research facilities, as well as setting up an “early warning system” to monitor departments at risk of closure, and reduce pressures affecting international student recruitment.
In the longer term it is calling for radical reforms in higher education funding to allow universities to meet the full costs of teaching nationally important subjects such as physics.
Sir Keith Burnett, the IoP’s president and a former chair of physics at Oxford University, said: “While we understand the pressures on public finances, it would be negligent not to sound the alarm for a national capability fundamental to our wellbeing, competitiveness and the defence of the realm.
“We are walking towards a cliff edge but there is still time to avert a crisis which would lead not just to lost potential but to many physics departments shutting down altogether.
“Physics researchers and talented physics students are our future but if action isn’t taken now to stabilise, strengthen and sustain one of our greatest national assets, we risk leaving them high and dry.”
Thomas said the erosion in value of domestic tuition fees and falling numbers of international students were behind the financial pressures, with smaller physics departments the most at risk.
“What that means is we will get more and more concentration of where physics is being taught and lose geographical distribution. That goes against aims of widening participation and means some disadvantaged groups will miss out on opportunities to study physics, and it’s important that we recognise that,” Thomas said.
A government spokesperson said it was increasing funding for public research and innovation by more than £22.5bn a year by 2029-30, representing a 3% real-terms increase compared with 2025-26.
“Our £86bn for public research and development until 2030 will help the UK’s world-class universities continue to lead discoveries,” a spokesperson said.
