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This 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 professionally focused degree integrates academic study with real-world clinical experience in practice. You’ll develop practical skills by applying your learning to real-life case scenarios, strengthening your clinical decision-making throughout the programme.

It uses a blended learning model, incorporating: distance learning; intensive teaching blocks on-campus in Glasgow; and, clinical experience in optical practices.

This course is accredited by the General Optical Council (GOC).

Entry Requirements

2027 entry requirements

Standard entry: 3 Highers at BCC including 1 from Biology (or Human Biology), Chemistry or Physics plus National 5 English and Maths at B.

Widening access entry: 3 Highers at CCC including 1 from Biology (or Human Biology), Chemistry or Physics plus National 5 English and Maths at B.

A Foundation Apprenticeship is accepted as equivalent of a non-essential Higher at B.

You would require a satisfactory PVG (Protecting Vulnerable Groups) check to show you are suitable for this type of course. Contact Disclosure Scotland for details.