As an optician survey of teaching staff at UK universities published this week reveals (page 5), this is just one of the likely consequences of the increasing numbers of students enrolling on optometry courses.Many in the profession, employers in particular, would not lament the passing of the &\#163;40,000-plus salary for the newly qualified optometrist. However, were the levels of recruitment to carry on increasing at their current rate, there would be more worrying effects for optometry departments, students, and perhaps for standards of clinical practice.Seventy-nine per cent of those surveyed agreed that they were concerned about the rising student numbers, with 81 per cent admitting that their departments could not cope should there be a substantial increase in intake.But academics were almost evenly split between those who believed that rising numbers and competition for jobs would improve the standard of clinical practice and those who thought not. This finding was reflected in the polarised opinions aired at this week's optician forum on manpower, more of which in next week's issue.One area that met with widespread agreement at the forum and in our survey was the likelihood of students facing problems in finding pre-registration placements.What would be decidedly unfair, should the numbers entering optometry departments increase, is the prospect of perfectly capable students being hindered from taking a place in the profession because they could not find pre-registration posts.
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