Omen writes

Plymouth University's intention to apply to the General Optical Council for recognition of a new optometry course comes as a surprise for a whole number of reasons. Since the last explosion in undergraduate places and the establishment of the course at Anglia Polytechnic (now Anglia Ruskin) University there has been a concern about recruitment, with difficulty in finding pre-reg year places and more recently a steep drop in the number of applicants for optometry courses.

The Anglia course was created with the support of the multiples who were finding difficulty in recruiting and in particular increasing salary rates. The result was an increase in graduates from some 450 to 600 a year. Between 2005 and 2008 the number of optometrists grew from some 9,200 to 11,500. This exponential growth cannot be justified by either the increase in the number of women qualifying or the ageing population. This has been encouraged by the corporates who are looking to reduce the cost of professional staff both by flooding the market with optometrists and introducing technology which can be used by non-professional staff. While the latter is to be encouraged to allow optometrists to make better use of their skills and should in fact reduce the need for as many, the danger is that low pay will be a disincentive for more able students to consider optometry as a career. This may well be reflected in the reduction of applicants for university places. The salary of professionals should reflect their need to give independent advice and not be dependent on commercial considerations the lower the salary that is paid and the more it is linked to incentives, the more likely it is that that principle will be breached. Press comment on the new course suggests that it had the support of multiples which speaks for itself.