Chris Bennett: Clinical skills combined with compassion

With all the talk of educational excellence it’s good to be reminded by Judy Lea that optometry and dispensing are caring professions.

As the General Optical Council’s Education Strategic Review draws to a conclusion a clear understanding is emerging that optometry graduates need to have more hands on clinical experience to ready them for a life in practice. Universities rightly want the brightest students to keep their marks high and their reputations intact but should a caring profession judge students on academic achievement alone?

Recent years have seen A-level grades become the be all and end all of university admission but the issue of how the next generation of optical professionals is chosen must be considered.