On Fri, 26 Aug 2005, AlexG wrote:

I'm looking for some knowledgeable opinions about schools in Australia
and New Zealand. Basically I have been working as a software engineer
in Silicon Valley for the last five year and have decided to make a
career change, going back to school to get a degree and masters in
Physics, spending a few years doing doctoral research on using computer
simulations and animations to give insight into quantum mechanics, and
then ideally trying to work as either a high school or college Physics
or Mathematics teacher. In the near-term I'd like to spend four years
of undergrad in New Zealand or Australia because I think that those
countries would make excellent places to live overseas and meet
interesting people from different backgrounds.

Basically I'm trying to find out which universities in New Zealand and
Australia have the best Physics programs, with the goal of preparing
myself for postgraduate research. My only requirement as far as
location would be concerned would be that the campus be near the beach
and somewhere windy enough to fly kites, which is a hobby. A good
Astronomy program and chess team would be a bonus.

Australian National University has an excellent reputation for its
undergrad course; the top students get to be involved in real research
projects. If you don't expect to be one of the top students, then that
might not affect you. ANU is not near a beach. Don't know about the other
things you're after.

Be aware that the usual 4 year program is a 3 year BSc, followed by 1 year
of postgrad honours course. In the system here, that 1 year is the only
postgrad coursework most people do before going straight into a research
only PhD. You also don't have to do the 3 year degree at the same place,
so you can hang around near a beach, then go to one of the bigger unis for
honours. Of course, you'll need good marks in you 3 year degree to get
into honours.

There are a bunch of small unis along the Queensland coast - Uni of
Central Qld, U of Sunshine Coast, James Cook Uni. JCU has a real physics
department (or used to, you might want to check). If you like beaches,
consider for BSc. These unis lack the reputation of the bigger unis in the
big cities.

Here, we're an hour from beaches. Sometimes windy, no chess team afaik,
and we only have a small undergrad astronomy selection, but a thriving
astro research group, so you might like here as a place to do honours.

Sydney Uni also has a good rep (as do others).

There was a recent evaluation of teching performance of Australian unis:
http://www.uq.edu.au/news/index.html?article=7738
which might be of interest to you.

--
Timo Nieminen - Home page: http://www.physics.uq.edu.au/people/nieminen/
E-prints: http://eprint.uq.edu.au/view/person/...,_Timo_A..html
Shrine to Spirits: http://www.users.bigpond.com/timo_nieminen/spirits.html