How many optometrists should be coming out of university each year and is too many a bad thing?
Last week’s emerging detail on the University of Western England’s optometry course will have caused a flurry of ire on the optometry chatrooms. The usual objection to yet another optometry course is both selfish and high-minded.
From a purely selfish point of view more optometrists mean lower salaries with the blame put on the GOC, the College and the AOP for allowing such a state of affairs to arise. Uncharacteristically, I will defend those organisations as it is not within their gift to manage the flow of professionals into the profession. If the course is good enough it will get GOC approval.
The high-minded objection runs that more optometrists getting onto courses must mean standards have to drop. Lower salaries also mean less able students will apply.
You may agree that while supply and demand means salaries may fall the other arguments don’t really hold water. A counter-argument could suggest that more professionals means a better service to the public courtesy of more professional staff and longer consultations.
But there are other factors at play. Student tuition fees and an obsession surrounding post-graduate employability was always going to be a factor for optometry. If you have qualified as an optometrist you are going to get a job if you want one. It’s the kind of course university administrators are going to gravitate towards.
The real argument should be over returning optics to a vocation. Rather than argue about the number, bring into the profession those students who want it as a lifetime, full-time vocation into which they will invest their career.