Optometry

Historical Significance: Recruitment of students was a serious problem when the Australian College of Optometry was founded in 1940 and the course became 4 years full time at university level. Optometry was not well known and not held in high social regard. It was denigrated by the medical profession and the new course required completion of secondary school, matriculation and study at the BSc level, whereas previously training was by apprenticeship and evening classes based on intermediate certificate (year 10). University level training was undertaken by only a small proportion of young people in the 1930s and 1940s. Moreover there was a war from 1939 to 1945 so many young people had their professional training delayed by war service. Four students graduated in 1944 but none in 1945 and 1946 and only a total of 12 in the years 1947 to 1949. After the War there was an influx of returned servicemen retraining for civilian life but numbers fell away again in the mid 1950s. Considerable effort was put into student recruitment from 1940 to the end of the 1960s.