Ophthalmic Dispensing
Our Ophthalmic Dispensing degree gives you the practical experience and training needed to succeed in an important healthcare profession. You can help people see the world more clearly and build a rewarding career in eyecare.
Glasgow Caledonian is Scotland’s main provider of eyecare education with over 50 years of experience training eyecare professionals. This is the only course for Dispensing Opticians (DOs) in Scotland.
As a DO, your role is to provide patients with tailored visual solutions to enable them to see clearly. This includes standard spectacles to specialist corrections, protective eyewear, and low vision aids. You’ll work with optometrists, orthoptists, and ophthalmologists to ensure each patient gets the help they need.
This course is accredited by the General Optical Council (GOC).
From first year, the clinical training is provided within our on-campus Vision Centre. The Vision Centre provides a wide range of core and specialist clinical services to the public with modern facilities. Here students develop decision-making, patient care, and practical skills that are essential for their future career.
Clinical Training
This registrable degree programme is designed to allow students to integrate clinical experience in practice directly into their learning.
Across the three years of the programme, students will complete 1600 hours of clinical experience in an optical practice environment under supervision of experienced professionals. This enables students to meet regulator (GOC) requirements for registration as a Dispensing Optician at the point of graduation.
The programme uses a blended learning model, incorporating distance learning, intensive teaching blocks on-campus in Glasgow and clinical experience in optical practices.
Why study Ophthalmic Dispensing at GCU?
This is a registrable degree programme
Flexible blended learning helps you fit study around your life.
We have over 50 years of experience training eyecare professionals, and we are Scotland's main provider of ophthalmic education
91% of our health research has been ranked as world-leading or internationally excellent
Careers
Upon graduation, students will be able to register as a Dispensing Optician, registering directly with the General Optical Council (GOC) and be eligible to join the Association of British Dispensing Opticians (ABDO). This opens up opportunities across a range of settings, including optical practice, hospital services, teaching and academia throughout the UK.
The programme also supports professional networking throughout your studies. During on-campus teaching blocks, you’ll have opportunities to engage with local and national industry representatives, including:
optical businesses
lens manufacturers
professional and regulatory bodies such as the GOC
In addition, shared teaching and social activities provide opportunities to connect with students across all vision science programmes within the department
Professionally accredited courses provide industry-wide recognition of the quality of your qualification.
This course is not accepting applications at this time. Please contact the provider to find out more.
The following entry points are available for this course:
SWAP Access to Science and Technology – Merit overall or BBB at first attempt with 65% in Physics Module.
ABB or 65% if second sitting with 65% in Physics Module.
Access programmes must include Science subjects, specifically Physics and Maths.
We recognise that some applicants may bring valuable experience from optical practice alongside non-standard qualifications. These applications will be reviewed individually to assess suitability for degree-level study.
| Test | Grade | Additional details |
|---|---|---|
| IELTS (Academic) | 7 | IELTS of overall 7.0 with 7.0 in speaking and no other element below 6.5. |
This section shows the range of grades that students who received offers were previously accepted on to this course with (learn more).
It is designed to support your research but does not guarantee whether you will or won't get a place.
Admissions teams consider various factors, including interviews, subject requirements, and entrance tests. Check all course entry requirements for eligibility.
We are unable to show previous accepted grades for this course. This could be because the course is new, it's a postgraduate course, there isn't enough historical data, or the provider has opted out of sharing their entry grades data for this course - learn more.
This report uses your grades to show how students with similar results have done when applying to this course in the past. Sometimes, there isn’t data for every possible set of grades. When that happens, universities and colleges occasionally fill in the gaps for sets of grades that are typically accepted.
| Location | Fee | Year |
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* This is a provisional fee and subject to change.
Tuition fee status depends on a number of criteria and varies according to where in the UK you will study. For further guidance on the criteria for home or overseas tuition fees, please refer to the UKCISA website.
For further information please visit our website www.gcu.ac.uk/study/tuitionfees
Additional costs may apply to students on this programme. Please check the fees and funding section of the programme page on the GCU website for specific details.
Email:Clearing@gcu.ac.uk
Phone:08000279171
Email:studentenquiries@gcu.ac.uk
Phone:0141 331 8630
Fax: 0141 331 8676
City Campus
Cowcaddens Road
Glasgow
G4 0BA
At Glasgow Caledonian University
