Examples of a large-scale physics syllabus review My Department – Physics – is preparing to modernise its entire syllabus at all levels, from undergraduate through to graduate courses. We are looking at what material should be taught, as well as methods for teaching that material. This will be a significant, multi-year project.

I have found plenty of accounts of how others have changed a single course, or a few courses. However I’ve not come across an account of a department changing its whole programme of study, root and branch, in the manner we are contemplating. 

Do you know of any physics – or similar – departments/schools which have gone through such a major renovation?
You might want to take a look at Germany (and possibly other countries an Europe). Due to the Bologna reform, physics departments (and many other ones) were forced to switch their curriculum from the old diploma system to a bachelor–master system somewhere around 2005 (the exact year depends on the university).

At least my university used this for some restructuring of the contents and, e.g., did the following (just to give you an idea):


Introduced separate math courses for physicists (before, students of physics and mathematics attended the same courses).
Introduced special courses each for IT, presentations and numerics (before, students were supposed to learn this by themselves on the way or when they actually needed it)
Moved theoretical mechanics and electrodynamics one semester earlier.
Merged the courses on atomic physics and condensed-matter physics as well as the courses on nuclear and particle physics.


Other universities might have undergone even more radical changes.