Studying optometry as a mature student

Hi everyone, I’m just a little lost and need some guidance - hopefully someone could help me out!

So a little backstory, I did Level 3 health and social care extended diploma couple years back and as a stupid teen I didn’t really focus much and got rubbish grades which were MPP and I have an AS grade at grade A (only completed the first year of my alevel hence it’s an AS). Also passed my English gcse but failed maths.

OK not to bore you guys any longer.. long story short I want to go back into studying as a now 24 year old. Now the thing is I want to study optometry and I don’t meet any of the requirements. I just managed to have the courage to take the step towards this but it’s too late to to start this year in September.

I was just wondering if anyone knows what my options could be? as in if there might be a pre course I could take or like a foundation year and if you know which universities offer these?

I live in london so I want to also go to a university that’s in london.

Thanks in advance!! :biggrin:

(edited 9 months ago)

Reply 1

MindMax2000

Universities Forum Helper

21

Original post by Elifozk

Hi everyone, I’m just a little lost and need some guidance - hopefully someone could help me out!

So a little backstory, I did Level 3 health and social care extended diploma couple years back and as a stupid teen I didn’t really focus much and got rubbish grades which were MPP and I have an AS grade at grade A (only completed the first year of my alevel hence it’s an AS). Also passed my English gcse but failed maths.

OK not to bore you guys any longer.. long story short I want to go back into studying as a now 24 year old. Now the thing is I want to study optometry and I don’t meet any of the requirements. I just managed to have the courage to take the step towards this but it’s too late to to start this year in September.

I was just wondering if anyone knows what my options could be? as in if there might be a pre course I could take or like a foundation year and if you know which universities offer these?

I live in london so I want to also go to a university that’s in london.

Thanks in advance!! :biggrin:

Your level 3 wouldn't be appropriate for a degree in optometry, so I don't think your grades will matter that much.
What was your AS in? (it's not that it matters because it's not a full A Level, but I am interested just in case it's one of the sciences or maths)

There's no way around it, you would need to at least pass maths to get into uni. I don't know what your GCSE grade for English, but it would need to be at least a 4.

Optometry is a regulated profession, so you would need specific qualifications in order to go into it.
The following are the job profiles for optometrists:
https://www.prospects.ac.uk/job-profiles/optometrist
https://nationalcareers.service.gov.uk/job-profiles/optometrist
https://www.healthcareers.nhs.uk/explore-roles/wider-healthcare-team/roles-wider-healthcare-team/clinical-support-staff/optometrist
https://www.careerpilot.org.uk/job-sectors/medical/job-profile/optometrist

In any case, the point is that you would need to do an approved degree by the General Optical Council (GOC), and there is a list of limited universities that you can go to for your optometry degree:
https://optical.org/en/education-and-cpd/education/what-to-study-and-where/

The only university in London that offers optometry is City, and if you're intent to sticking to City you would need to ultimately do MOptom Optometry (most places would require an MOptom, but it's a minor point). The following are their entry requirements:
https://www.city.ac.uk/prospective-students/courses/undergraduate/optometry
As you don't meet the entry requirements for this course, you would need to look at their foundation course:
https://www.city.ac.uk/prospective-students/courses/foundation/introduction-to-optometry#accordion502079-header2

Other than City, there are some universities that do a foundation year:
https://www.cardiff.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/courses/course/master-of-optometry-with-preliminary-year-5-year
https://www.herts.ac.uk/courses/undergraduate/initial-year-for-extended-degree-in-science-optometry2
(Note that these either accept BTEC or A Levels)

As you can see, the entry requirements are somewhat similiar so you would need to start over.
The key requirements are GCSE English and Maths at grade 4. Once you have that, your main choices are limited to A Levels or BTECS (I don't know of any place that allows you to do IBs as a mature student). However, there are some universities that accpet Access diplomas, but you won't be in London for those (e.g. Plymouth, Manchester, Ulster, Huddersfield, UWE)

As you have already done a Level 3 qualification, you would likely need to fund for your A Levels or BTECs. If you study at a registered college, you should be able to get access to Advanced Learner's Loans for your Level 3 course.
To my knowledge, there is 1 or 2 colleges in London that offer A Levels to mature students, but they're usually expensive.

The first thing to do is to try to get your 2 GCSEs to the required grades, if your English isn't already (definitely need to redo the maths). You can often redo these for free at your local adult college, but you should enquire about this first.

After that, I would recommend doing your A Levels, where you would need to pick at least 2 science and/or math subjects. Which 2 subjects you pick is up to you (feel free to do all 3). I haven't seen the need for you do to do the practicals in any of the optometry degree courses, so you might be able to skip them (they cost £1000 per subject), and just the get the 3 A Levels via exams (roughly £250 per subject). However, I would check with the undergrad admissions of the particular universities that you want to apply to just to be sure this is the case.
Should you wish to do your A Levels at an offline college, be aware of the costs you need to pay for. If you want to do an online self paced course, the cost can range from £400-900 per subject depending on the college, and these often don't include exam fees which you need to pay for and arrange for yourself.
If you want to risk it all and self study yourself, you can pick up textbooks on the subjects you want to do and then arrange for your exams yourself, and paying for the exam fees yourself.

If on the other hand, you want to do an Access course, note you won't be able to study Optometry at City. However, these courses are usually 1 year and you don't have the hassle of arranging everything yourself. However, you would be restricted by the universities that you can study at. Cost for these is £3500, but you can use the Advanced Learner's Loan for this if you study offline at your local adult college. If you do the online ones, I don't think you would be able to get funding for them, but they can cost about £1000. When you do pick a course, it's imperative that it has at least 15 credits in each science (e.g. 15 credits in biology, then another 15 credits in chemistry), otherwise the course is not applicable for the degree that you want to do.

If you want to do BTECs, again like the Access courses, you would be slightly restricted to which universities that you can apply to (I think there's 1 or 2 that might not accept BTECs). These can only be done at adult colleges as far as I know, but you would get Advanced Learner Loans for them. Make sure the BTEC is in one of the approved subjects e.g. Medical sciences, Applied Sciences. I would check the entry requirements of individual degrees just to be sure.

The grade required for Optometry degrees can be rather high (ABB for A Levels, D*DD for BTECs, and 30-39 Disitnctions and the remaining 15-6 at Merit for Access). You would want to get these grades ideally in your first sitting or resit (any further resits after that and you would struggle to find a uni to get into for your course).

The alternative route to go into Optometry is to go into dispensing optics and completing your qualifications to at least degree level before applying. I think there is one other uni other than Bradford that would accept dispensing optics degrees as entry requirement. However, I consider this the long way round and you shouldn't do this unless you have no other options.
One university is willing to accept a degree in life science (e..g biomed, biochem, biological sciences), but you need it to be first class before the consider enrolling you. I haven't seen similar requirements elsewhere though. This would be the more expensive route to take.

I would focus on the GCSE first, and then decide what to do after that.

Good luck

Reply 2

University of Huddersfield

Official Rep

16

Original post by Elifozk

Hi everyone, I’m just a little lost and need some guidance - hopefully someone could help me out!

So a little backstory, I did Level 3 health and social care extended diploma couple years back and as a stupid teen I didn’t really focus much and got rubbish grades which were MPP and I have an AS grade at grade A (only completed the first year of my alevel hence it’s an AS). Also passed my English gcse but failed maths.

OK not to bore you guys any longer.. long story short I want to go back into studying as a now 24 year old. Now the thing is I want to study optometry and I don’t meet any of the requirements. I just managed to have the courage to take the step towards this but it’s too late to to start this year in September.

I was just wondering if anyone knows what my options could be? as in if there might be a pre course I could take or like a foundation year and if you know which universities offer these?

I live in london so I want to also go to a university that’s in london.

Thanks in advance!! :biggrin:

Hi @Elifozk

@MindMax2000 seems to have covered all bases here with a super informative answer, but if you do consider studying outside of London, as mentioned you could do a Science Extended Degree with us- this is essentially a foundation year that prepares you to then study a full Optometry Degree.

You can see the entry requirements here: https://courses.hud.ac.uk/2024-25/full-time/undergraduate/science-extended-degree-leading-to-a-bsc-hons-degree

If you would then like to take an Optometry degree with us, please see requirements of achievement for the foundation year/ science extended degree:
"Progression onto Optometry and Pharmacy is dependent on meeting stringent performance levels in the Science Extended Degree. You must pass all modules with an overall pass mark of at least 70%. Plus at least 70% in the Chemistry module and 70% in the Maths and Physics module. You must also successfully undertake an interview with the Optometry or Pharmacy admissions staff. "

However, you can also use this Foundation year to transfer and get into a University a little closer to have that has an Optometry course- you may still need certain levels of achievement from the year with us to get that transfer into another university.

Best wishes,
Lewis

Social media and content officer, University of Huddersfield

Studying optometry as a mature student

Quick Reply

Related discussions

Latest

Trending

Trending

Articles for you