Given the continued coverage of a new optometry course on the scene, Optician decided it would be useful to take a look at student levels in years gone by.
In this week’s Echoes of the Past, from 1975, an investigation into pass rates in ophthalmic optics courses reveal an overall 15 per cent drop out rate among the 811 students enrolling at various institutions between 1963 and 1968.
However, the figures are dwarfed in comparison to the options available to budding optometrists and dispensing opticians today, and the number of students enrolled on courses.
Taking current student registrations numbers in the four year cycle, which account for four years of intake compared to the five enrolments in the 1975 investigation, shows 4,488 students were registered by the end of 2013.
While the General Optical Council could not immediately provide a breakdown of how many of these students are studying optometry, there are now nine different optometry courses to choose from. It means when the University of Hertfordshire launches its course in September (see news) there will be twice as many providers as there were 30 years ago.
Also in The Optician in winter 1975 was a feature on latest safety goggles. While a Tried and Tested article by the current day Optician editor (see page 10 of this week’s issue) on swimming goggles continues this theme, coverage of safety periscope applications are all but a distant memory.