Texas Physics Consortium (TPC) is a group of Physics Departments that pool faculty expertise and institutional resources to provide access to quality upper-level undergraduate and graduate physics courses. The TPC use of pooled resources provides their students with the wide range of upper level physics courses usually available at only large institutions while maintaining the intimate student-faculty interaction of a small department.

Starting in Spring 2016, Tarleton State University, Midwestern State University, Prairie View A&M, Texas A&M Corpus Christi, Texas A&M Kingsville, Texas Southern, and West Texas A&M began awarding a Joint BS Physics Degree. This degree which is the result of over five years of work is the first of its kind in the United States to be jointly awarded by more than two institutions with a single uniform curriculum as part of a SACS accredited Joint Venture. The Joint BS Physics Degree is jointly administered by all full member institutions of the Texas Physics Consortium and overseen by the Texas Physics Consortium Council of Dean’s under authority of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. 

  1. Students can transfer between institutions with no course loss
  2. Students have access to all courses on a yearly rather than bi-yearly basis
  3. Students have maximum flexibility to tailor the degree to meet their career goals and interests
  4. Students have remote access to faculty expertise and facilities on all campuses

Besides all the standard math and physics courses in a BS Physics Degree, the degree also has 6 hours of Advanced Physics Electives, as well as 13 hours of General Electives and 18 hours of Support Field Electives,

Thus the degree provides the rigor needed to prepare a student for future graduate study in physics as well as the flexibility to tailor the degree to prepare a student to pursue opportunities in interdisciplinary fields like nanotechnology, bioengineering, etc. 

The students may use these elective hours to:

  1. Take additional physics elective courses including graduate courses 
  2. Take courses in a related field like math, computer science, engineering, chemistry, etc. 
  3. Pursue an interest in a non-technical area like music
  4. Do one of our specialty tracks

or some combination of the above. All institutions in the TPC are SACS accredited and the Joint BS Degree is a Joint Venture under the rules of SACS.