Optometry, MOptom (Hons)

Course summary

This course prepares you to work as an optometrist, making a real difference to the lives of people who suffer from vision impairment and sight loss.City students benefit from state-of-the-art clinics and laboratories including the City Sight Optometry Clinic and from study, placement and employment opportunities in a diverse capital city. City’s Department of Optometry and Visual Science has an excellent reputation with expert academics from a range of disciplines, including optometrists, ophthalmologists, dispensing opticians, orthoptists, physicists, psychologists, neuroscientists and biologists.You will learn about vision and the eye, through topics like optics, biology, eye disease and visual impairment. You’ll also learn about therapeutic solutions such as contact lenses and ophthalmic lenses and dispensing.In your final year, you’ll develop your clinical practice by working in our very own eye clinic, City Sight. You will examine members of the public – from babies to the elderly – presenting with a wide range of ocular conditions and needs.1st in London and 2nd in the UK for Health Professions, Guardian University Guide 2025.

Modules

From your very first day at City, you will build a foundation in the basic sciences that underpin optometry and start your clinical training. Lectures are supported by tutorials and laboratory-based work.Core modules include:

• Optics;

• Ophthalmic lenses and dispensing I

• Neural biology and general pathology

• Clinical skills I

• Visual optics and measurement techniques

In your second year, you will expand and enhance your clinical skills, developing an understanding of ocular and systemic disease coupled with the neuroscience of visual perception. Clinical confidence and competence is supported by expert guidance from optometrists who will teach you how to use the latest technologies to investigate ocular abnormalities, thus preparing you for the final-year clinics.Core modules include:

• Clinical skills II

• Contact lenses

• Introduction to Eye Disease

• Binocular Vision

• Visual perception

• Ophthalmic lenses and Dispensing II

In your third year, you will develop the knowledge and clinical skills that form the basis of optometric practice by seeing a diverse range of patients under supervision at our brand new City Sight Optometry Clinic. You will carry out full eye examinations and gain specialist skills in primary care, paediatrics, binocular vision, contact lenses, dispensing and visual impairment clinics. You will also observe patients at Moorfields Eye Hospital, one of the world's leading eye hospitals.Core modules include:

• Eye disease and therapeutics

• Clinical skills and professional practice

• Binocular vision, paediatrics and visual impairment

• Contact lenses II

- Research studies

Assessment method

You will be assessed using a variety of methods, depending on module choices:

• coursework

• written examinations

• clinical observation

• Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCEs)

- A project or dissertation is required in your final year.

Professional bodies

Professionally accredited courses provide industry-wide recognition of the quality of your qualification.

• General Optical Council

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From your very first day at City, you will build a foundation in the basic sciences that underpin optometry and start your clinical training. Lectures are supported by tutorials and laboratory-based work. Core modules include:

• Optics;

• Ophthalmic lenses and dispensing I

• Neural biology and general pathology

• Clinical skills I

• Visual optics and measurement techniques

In your second year, you will expand and enhance your clinical skills, developing an understanding of ocular and systemic disease coupled with the neuroscience of visual perception. Clinical confidence and competence is supported by expert guidance from optometrists who will teach you how to use the latest technologies to investigate ocular abnormalities, thus preparing you for the final-year clinics. Core modules include:

• Clinical skills II

• Contact lenses

• Introduction to Eye Disease

• Binocular Vision

• Visual perception

• Ophthalmic lenses and Dispensing II

In your third year, you will develop the knowledge and clinical skills that form the basis of optometric practice by seeing a diverse range of patients under supervision at our brand new City Sight Optometry Clinic. You will carry out full eye examinations and gain specialist skills in primary care, paediatrics, binocular vision, contact lenses, dispensing and visual impairment clinics. You will also observe patients at Moorfields Eye Hospital, one of the world's leading eye hospitals. Core modules include:

• Eye disease and therapeutics

• Clinical skills and professional practice

• Binocular vision, paediatrics and visual impairment

• Contact lenses II

- Research studies