There is no PRC licence for physicists in the Philippines. No board exam, no certificate of registration, no professional identification card - physics is not among the professions the Professional Regulation Commission regulates. If that is the question that brought you here, that is the answer, and the rest of this guide is about what the degree does give you instead.
The order that governs physics degrees
The standard is CHED Memorandum Order No. 20, series of 2007, "Policies and Standards for the Undergraduate Physics Programs." It covers two degrees in one document: Bachelor of Science in Physics and Bachelor of Science in Applied Physics.
You should know one thing about this order before reading its unit tables: its general education component is built on CHED Memorandum Circular No. 4, series of 1997, the 51-unit general education curriculum that predates both K to 12 and the current general education curriculum under CMO No. 20, s. 2013. Unlike chemistry (updated in 2017), statistics (2017) and biology (2017), the physics PSG was not reissued in CHED's post-K-12 round of revisions.
This is not a physics-specific quirk. The Second Congressional Commission on Education reported that CHED takes an average of 11 years to review and update programme standards, attributing much of the delay to a seven-year gap in reconstituting the technical panels that set them - with 89 of 91 panels reconstituted as of October 2025.
The practical consequence for you: treat the physics core in CMO 20 as the reliable part and the general education and total-unit figures as historical. A physics programme you enrol in today will use the current 36-unit general education curriculum, so its total will not be 144. Ask the department for its actual programme of study rather than assuming the 2007 table applies.
What the two degrees are for
CMO 20 describes physics as "the foundation of all Natural Sciences ... the science of matter, energy, space, and time," and applied physics as "rooted in the basic concepts of the physical sciences but ... concerned with the utilization of scientific principles in practical devices and systems, and in the application of physics in other areas of science."
The stated objective for BS Physics is "comprehensive and rigorous training in physics as a foundation for careers in pure and applied physics or interdisciplinary sciences," sufficient to let graduates pursue advanced physics research, university physics teaching, graduate study, or employment in physics-related jobs in business, industry or government.
BS Applied Physics is "specifically designed for those who intend to use the principles and methods of physics to other fields or to the solutions of practical problems of society such as those arising in the industries, health or public service."
The competency standards are short enough to quote in full. Graduates must be able to: apply mathematical, computational and experimental methods in solving physical problems; synthesise and effectively communicate scientific information; and apply scientific reasoning to arrive at decisions.
The curriculum outline
| Component | BS Physics | BS Applied Physics |
|---|---|---|
| General Education (1997 curriculum) | 51 | 51 |
| Core courses | 69 | 60 |
| Physics electives | 12 | — |
| Specialisation | — | 21 |
| Free electives | 6 | 6 |
| Special project | 6 | 6 |
| Total | 144 | 144 |
Again: the 51 and the 144 reflect the 1997 general education structure. The core, electives and special project are the parts that describe the degree.
BS Physics core (69 units).
Mathematics and mathematical physics core, 19 units: Calculus (10), Differential Equations (3), Mathematical Physics (6).
Physics core, 50 units: General Physics with 3 units of laboratory (12), Electromagnetic Theory I and II (6), Theoretical Mechanics I and II (6), Computational Methods with laboratory (4), Electronics with one unit of laboratory (4), Advanced Laboratory (3), Modern Physics (3), Optics (3), Quantum Mechanics (3), Solid State Physics (3), Statistical and Thermal Physics (3).
BS Applied Physics core (60 units). The same 19-unit mathematics core, and a 41-unit physics core that drops Optics and Solid State Physics and adds Advanced Mechanics (3): General Physics with laboratory (12), Electromagnetic Theory I and II (6), Electronics with laboratory (4), Computational Methods with laboratory (4), Advanced Laboratory (3), Advanced Mechanics (3), Modern Physics (3), Quantum Mechanics (3), Statistical and Thermal Physics (3).
The nine units the applied degree gives up in core it more than recovers in specialisation - 21 units instead of 12 units of electives.
Electives and specialisation
CMO 20's suggested physics electives are a useful map of where physics can be pointed:
Advanced Electronics, advanced mathematical physics courses, Advanced Statistical Physics, Astrophysics and Planetary Physics, Atmospheric Physics, Biophysics, Complex Systems, Computers and Computational Methods, Condensed Matter Physics, Crystallography, Environmental Physics, Fluid Mechanics, General Relativity, Geophysics, Instrumentation Physics, Laser Physics, Medical and Health Physics, Nuclear and Particle Physics, Optics, Physics and Society, Physics Education, Physics of Energy, Physics Seminar, Plasma Physics, and Special Topics in Physics.
For BS Applied Physics, the order says specialisation courses may be selected from the BS Physics elective list plus courses in engineering or allied fields, that the selected courses "must show a field of concentration," and that "the unit must have a strong faculty line-up in the specialization program." That last requirement is the one to test when you compare schools: a specialisation is only real if there are people to teach and supervise it.
A concrete example of how a department implements this: the UP National Institute of Physics in Diliman offers a BS in Physics programme and a BS in Applied Physics programme, the latter with two concentrations - Instrumentation Physics and Materials Physics - alongside MA, MS and PhD programmes in physics. That is what "a strong faculty line-up in the specialization" looks like in practice: named concentrations backed by graduate programmes in the same areas.
The special project
Both degrees require a 6-unit special project. CMO 20 does not dictate its form, so schools vary: a research thesis, an experimental project, an instrumentation build, or a computational modelling problem.
For an unlicensed science degree this is the single most important line in the curriculum. Without a board exam, the special project is the main verifiable evidence a graduate carries into an interview or a graduate application. When comparing programmes, ask what recent special projects looked like, whether they resulted in conference presentations or publications, and whether the equipment they needed actually existed on campus.
Why there is no licence
The PRC regulates a profession only where a law or commission resolution creates a regulatory board for it. Chemistry has one under Republic Act No. 10657; forestry under Republic Act No. 10690; geology under Republic Act No. 10166. Physics has none. There is no physicist licensure examination on the PRC roster.
That is not a comment on the difficulty of the degree - it reflects how Philippine professional regulation grew, profession by profession, through separate statutes. The practical effect is that a physics graduate's credential is the degree, the special project, and whatever else they build.
Common substitutes, depending on where you are heading:
- Graduate study. In physics, more than most fields, the master's or doctorate is the working qualification for research and academic positions. Our postgraduate study guide and doctorate guide cover the Philippine routes.
- Engineering licensure, via a different degree. Physics graduates cannot sit engineering board exams on a physics degree; those examinations require the corresponding engineering degree. If a licensed engineering career is the goal, that decision is made at enrolment, not after - see our strand for engineering guide.
- Teaching credentials. Tertiary teaching does not require a PRC licence, but teaching in basic education does. That means separate education units and the Licensure Examination for Teachers - see how to become a teacher in the Philippines.
- Sector-specific certification. Fields such as medical and health physics and radiation safety operate under their own regulatory regimes rather than a general physics licence.
Where physics graduates work
CMO 20 states it plainly: a bachelor's degree in physics or applied physics "will prepare the graduates for work in private and government research and service institutes, academic units, media and industry," and for graduate studies.
In the Philippine context that maps onto government research and service institutions in science and technology, meteorology and seismology; semiconductor and electronics manufacturing, where instrumentation and materials physics graduates are hired for process and failure analysis; medical physics roles in hospitals with radiotherapy or nuclear medicine; energy and utilities; software and data roles that recruit on quantitative and computational ability rather than a specific degree; and academia.
The order lists the allied fields physics is closely related to: electrical, mechanical and chemical engineering, materials science, mathematics, physical chemistry, meteorology and biophysics. If you are still weighing options, our BS Mathematics guide covers the closest unlicensed quantitative neighbour.
Is it the right degree for you
Three honest filters.
The mathematics is the degree. Ten units of Calculus, Differential Equations, six units of Mathematical Physics, then Quantum Mechanics and Electromagnetic Theory on top. There is no version of this programme that avoids heavy mathematics.
Laboratory access is not optional. General Physics carries three units of laboratory; there is a dedicated Advanced Laboratory course; Electronics and Computational Methods both carry laboratory components. A physics department without working laboratories cannot deliver this curriculum, and the CHED order sets minimum laboratory and library requirements precisely because that is a known failure mode.
Plan for graduate school or plan for industry, but plan. Because there is no licence gate, the physics degree rewards students who decide early whether they are heading for research (in which case the special project and faculty relationships matter most) or for industry (in which case programming, instrumentation and an internship matter most).
We do not publish a tuition figure for BS Physics. It is a small programme nationally, concentrated in state universities and a few private institutions with very different cost structures, and laboratory fees are often assessed separately. Ask each registrar for the full per-semester assessment, and confirm the programme has CHED authority to operate before you enrol.
The short version
BS Physics and BS Applied Physics are both governed by CHED Memorandum Order No. 20, series of 2007 - an order whose physics core is still the reference but whose general education and total-unit figures predate K to 12, so current programmes differ. BS Physics runs 69 units of core plus 12 units of electives; BS Applied Physics runs 60 units of core plus 21 units of specialisation in a declared field of concentration. Both require a 6-unit special project. There is no PRC board exam for physicists, so the project, the specialisation and graduate study are what carry the degree into a career.
Sources
- CHED Memorandum Order No. 20, s. 2007 - Policies and Standards for the Undergraduate Physics Programs (official PDF)
- UP National Institute of Physics - Programs Offered
- EDCOM 2 - CHED curriculum updates take 11 years on average
- Professional Regulation Commission - Table of Qualification and Documentary Requirements to Accompany an Application to Take a Licensure Examination (list of regulatory boards)
- CHED - 2017 CHED Memorandum Orders index (showing which science PSGs were reissued)
