The Department of Optometry and Vision Sciences (OVS) was created in 2019 within the School of Applied Sciences University of Huddersfield. The department offers the BSc (Hons) in Optometry delivered in dedicated, purpose built accommodations as part of a ~£18.2 million development in the School of Applied Sciences. Taking up the whole of the ground floor, are purpose built pre-clinical teaching areas and a new University Eye Clinic, where students develop key clinical skills aligned with modern optometric practice. As they progress through the 3 year BSc (Hons) Optometry course, students will continue to develop their clinical and patient management skills using modern optometric equipment under the supervision of experienced academic and clinical tutors. Students benefit from access to a range of fully equipped and dedicated pre-clinical laboratories in Optometry that contain equipment for spectacle and ophthalmic lens repair and measurement and specialist equipment for eye and examinations and vision assessments.

As a new department we are developing our research base. Our initial areas of focus are centred on clinical and non-clinical problems in paediatric and binocular vision, particularly visual acuity (crowding), stereopsis and amblyopia, and research into the effectiveness of optometric procedures.