The Department of Physics and Electronics is one of the departments under the Faculty of Science, Technology and Innovation (FoSTI) at Mzuzu University. It was first established in 1999 as a Physics Section under the Department of Basic Sciences in the Faculty of Education. It started offering courses in January 2000. The Physics Section was reconstituted into a stand-alone Department of Physics in 2003.  Its mandate then was to offer courses in physics and physics methodology to pre-service secondary school teachers. Where necessary, the Department also  accepted  students  from  other  programmes to  register  for  the  courses  it  offered.  The Department also participated in in-service courses for serving secondary school physical science teachers and conducted research in physics, physics teaching/learning and related disciplines.

Due to the university – wide faculty restructuring, the Department of Physics was reconstituted into the Department of Physics and Electronics in 2018. Its mandate is to offer physics and physics-related programmes and courses. It is also expected to conduct research, consultancy and outreach activities in physics and physics-related disciplines.