The minimum academic requirement for direct admission to the Ph.D. program is an M.Sc. or M.A.Sc. in physics, astronomy or mathematics with an average grade of at least 80%. Direct admission to the PhD program additionally requires the student to secure a firm commitment of research supervision from a faculty member. PhD applicants should contact faculty members whose research is of interest to them about the possibility of supervision as soon as possible. The admissions process is competitive, thus the commitment of a supervisor does not guarantee admission to the program. Alternatively, students who already have a masters degree from outside Canada can be admitted into UBC's M.Sc. program, then transfer to the Ph.D. program once they secure the commitment of a research supervisor.

Academic transcripts (showing all course names and grades, in English) from all post-secondary (college & university) institutions you have attended. Three references written by former professors or supervisors. GRE scores (both general and a relevant subject test) are requested when available.

For IELTS, a minimum overall band score of 6.5 is required with a minimum score of 6.0 in each component of the academic (NOT general) IELTS test.
For TOEFL, the minimum grade is 90 for the internet-based exam (with minimum component scores of 22 (reading, listening) and 21 (writing, speaking) or 55 each for reading, listening, and writing in the paper-based test, with 4.0 on the Test of Written English (TWE)