In his most recent paper, The Future of Optometric Education – Challenges and Opportunities, Dr. Charles Mullen gives an overview of the major issues faced by optometric education along with recommended actions to address each one. The links below will take you to specific sections in the paper.
Ten Challenges for Optometric Education
- Significant Oversupply of Optometrists
- Inflated Enrollments and Excess Graduates
- High Graduate Debt vs. Potential Income
- Static Student Applicant Pool
- Impact of Corporate Optometry
- Potential Loss of Medicaid Clinic Revenue
- VA Threatening to Outsource Optometry Services
- Exclusion from Many Key Federal Scholarship and Loan Repayment Programs
- Increased Clinical Training Costs with No New Revenue Sources
- Exclusion of Optometry from the Graduate Medical Education Program
