About

Offering up to 14 programmes, the Department of Physics and Biomedical Sciences offers more programmes than any other department at the Polytechnic. It is under the Faculty of Applied Sciences. The academic members of staff in the Department also service other departments by teaching various modules. 

What We Currently Offer

The Department offers two diploma programs—a Diploma in Industrial Laboratory Technology and a Diploma in Occupational Safety and Health. However, it is the undergraduate degrees that are the flagship programmes of the Department. The BSc. in Industrial Laboratory Technology builds off the diploma of the same name, offering students advanced material. It aims to equip them with the theoretical and practical skills that would enable them to manage issues in any industrial laboratory setting and organisation The BSc. in Food Science and Technology aims to build capacity and supply professionals capable of addressing societal and industrial food-related issues. The BSc. in Industrial and Environmental Physics aims to to produce graduates with the necessary skills for employment as technologists or scientific personnel in the fields of technology and physics, with an emphasis on the applications of physics in industrial and environmental contexts including the science underlying renewable energy and sustainable technologies. Similarly, the BSc. in Environmental Management and Technology seeks to develop students’ understanding of environmental issues and the techniques used to better manage the interrelationships that exist between society and the environment.

The Department also offers an MSc. Degree in Water Resources and Supply Management with the aim of developing in students the knowledge, insight and skills required to design, implement and evaluate water resources and supply management policies and strategies, and an MSc. in Environmental Protection and Management, which has the same aim, but is focused on environmental protection and management. On the other hand, the MPhil in Applied Sciences (Environmental Protection and Management) is more of a research degree. It aims to develop students’ scientific competencies and research skills as they apply to protecting and managing the environment. Similarly, the MPhil in Applied Sciences (Renewable Energy) and the MPhil in Applied Sciences (Industrial Process and Technology) also aim to develop candidates’ scientific competencies and research skills in their respective areas of study.

As a terminal degree, the Department offers a Ph.D. in Applied Sciences. Students can focus their studies in one of three areas: Industrial Process Technology, Environmental Protection and Management, and Renewable Energy. As with the MPhil degrees, the aim is to develop, even further, students’ scientific competencies and research skills, bearing in mind that the goal is to enhance the application of scientific research and tailor-made capacity building in the public and private sector. 

Other Ventures

As with academic members of staff in other departments, members of the Department of Physics and Biomedical Sciences are engaged in not only teaching but also conducting collaborative research with members of the other departments in the Faculty of Applied Sciences. Naturally, the also collaborate with the researchers at the Centre for Water, Sanitation, Health & Appropriate Technology Development (WASHTED), also based at the Polytechnic.