Entry requirements
GCSE/National 4/National 5
5 GCSEs at grade C, or grade 4, or above, including English and Maths at grade C, or grade 4, and either Physics at grade B, or grade 5, or Double Award Science at grades BB, or grades 55.
UCAS Tariff
Grades AAB at A level with grades AA to come from 2 Subjects from: Maths, Physics, Biology, Chemistry at first sitting or first resit.
About this course
Optometrists perform eye tests and diagnose sight problems, helping to improve people’s vision and manage a range of eye conditions. Our Cambridge-based degree, fully accredited by the General Optical Council, is designed to give you the skills you need to register as an optometrist after a year-long clinical placement. You’ll learn from lecturers who are professional practitioners, use specialist equipment in clinical and lab sessions, and make a difference to people’s lives working in our University Eye Clinic.
Only a third of your teaching time will be spent in lectures. The rest of your learning will be hands-on, divided between practical demonstrations, clinical and lab sessions, and our eye clinic. You’ll also visit local hospital clinics to gain practical experience – plus, there’s the chance to get work experience in the community, spending time with charities like Cam Sight.
Our Eye Clinic has everything you’ll need to practise your optometry skills, including 15 fully equipped testing and research rooms. You’ll use specialist equipment such slitlamps, keratometers and optical coherence tomographers. And you’ll have access to facilities for assessing and supporting visually impaired people and testing visual stress and colour perception.
All our staff are trained or registered as optometrists or dispensing opticians, so you’ll be kept up-to-date with what’s going on in the professional world. You’ll also have guest lectures from ophthalmologists, orthoptists and optometrists working in laser eye clinics and their own practices.
Our three year degree course is accredited by the General Optical Council (GOC), so when you graduate you’ll be able to register as a fully-qualified optometrist after completing a pre-registration, year-long clinical placement.
Modules
Year one, core modules
Human Anatomy and Physiology for Optometrists
Ocular Anatomy and Biochemistry
Geometrical, Physical and Visual Optics
Theoretical and Practical Ophthalmic Lenses
Clinical Optometry 1- Introduction to Practice
Year two, core modules
Clinical Optometry 2 -Skills for Optometric Practice
Monocular, Binocular and Paediatric Vision
Clinical Optometry 3 - Introduction to Professional Practice
Pharmacology and Pathology
Introduction to Ocular Disease
Year three, core modules
Undergraduate Major Project
Clinical Optometry 4 - Advanced Optometric Practice
Clinical Optometry 5 - Professional Practice
Optometry, Society and Environment
Assessment methods
Throughout the course, we’ll use a range of assessment to measure your progress. Because our course is so practical, a lot of your assessment will be practical, too – including exams and clinical competence. You’ll also do written exams, problem-solving exercises, essays, presentations and data analysis.
Tuition fees
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The Uni
Cambridge Campus
School of Psychology and Sport Science
What students say
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How do students rate their degree experience?
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Ophthalmics
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Who studies this subject and how do they get on?
Most popular A-Levels studied (and grade achieved)
After graduation
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Ophthalmics
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Top job areas of graduates
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Looking further ahead, below is a rough guide for what graduates went on to earn.
Allied health
The graph shows median earnings of graduates who achieved a degree in this subject area one, three and five years after graduating from here.
£20k
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Note: this data only looks at employees (and not those who are self-employed or also studying) and covers a broad sample of graduates and the various paths they've taken, which might not always be a direct result of their degree.
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