The Study of Physics began at Sydney University in 1852.

The School is currently made up of about 20 staff on 'continuing' appointments involved in teaching and research, 100 fixed-term research-only staff, 100 postgraduate research students, and some 30 administrative and technical staff.

Physics is taught by the School to around 1600 students at all levels. Almost 1000 of these take Junior (1st) year Physics courses of various types each semester. About 140 of these students progress to Intermediate (2nd) year, and a further 60 take Physics as a "major" in their Senior (3rd) year. The number of students in the Honours (4th) year has increased to more than 20 in recent years.

The School is also home to a small but increasing increasing number of postgraduate coursework students, complementing the traditional strength in postgraduate research students, who now number around 100.