Tuition fee fear played down.(Brief Article)

Concern that the Government's narrow victory on tuition fees may be detrimental to the profession and course intake were played down by the optometry universities this week.

Bedford optometrist Simon Browning commented that the policy could mean students involved in four-year courses leave university saddled with thousands of pounds more debt than those who study for three.

'If I were a student now, I would not look to go to a four-year registerable degree course,' he said. 'I would plump for the three years, with one-year pre-reg format.'

However, an admissions tutor at a university that offers a four-year optometry course denied it would put ...