SPIN-UP Report
Results Summary
Tables and Statistics
SPIN-UP Workshops
SPIN-UP and Two-Year Colleges
If you have a great undergraduate physics program, we'd like to know about it! Send us an email describing what makes your program thrive.
Some physics departments graduate large numbers of majors year after year, while others graduate much lower numbers and are, in some cases, threatened with closure. What sets the thriving departments apart?
This question led to the formation of the National Task Force on Undergraduate Physics (NTFUP), which wrote the influential SPIN-UP report.
To determine what thriving undergraduate physics departments have in common, NTFUP sent site visit teams to 21 physics departments whose undergraduate programs were, by various measures, thriving. In addition, with the aid of the American Institute of Physics Statistical Research Center, the task force developed a survey and sent it to all 759 departments in the United States that grant bachelor’s degrees in physics.
The report can be downloaded in full or in parts using the links below. You can also request a free bound and printed copy by emailing AAPT Membership.
APS and AAPT offer a wide variety of resources to help physics departments implement reforms recommended by the SPIN-UP Report. In addition, in 2007 the two societies passed a joint statement calling for doubling the number of undergraduate physics majors.
SPIN-UP consulting teams are available on an ad hoc basis to help your department develop plans for enhancing your undergraduate program. Departments pay for transportation and local expenses for the consulting team. If you are interested in hosting a SPIN-UP consulting team, email APS Education.