The Master of Science program is designed to prepare students for a research career in academia or industry by introducing advanced ideas and techniques that are applicable in a wide range of research areas, while emphasizing the underlying physics concepts.

The program is a core part of the Higgs Centre for Theoretical Physics, which has been created to mark the start of a new era in theoretical physics research, following the discovery of the Higgs boson at CERN. Students will take part in the center's activities, including weekly seminars, colloquia and workshops involving physicists from around the world, and they will be involved in research-level projects as part of their dissertation.

The partnership between mathematics and physics is an essential one. In theoretical physics we attempt to build abstract constructs that rationalize, explain and predict physical phenomena. To do this we need mathematics: the language of physics. The underlying structure of the physical world can be understood in great detail using mathematics; this is a never-ending source of fascination to theoretical physicists.