Optometrists play a crucial role in primary health care, examining the population’s eyes and diagnosing vision problems including minor eye infections and providing treatment.
While the study of optometry has a professional focus, we also provide you with a strong foundation in basic and health science. These skills will enable you to keep up with the expanding role of optometry in providing lifelong eye health and vision care to the community.

A particular strength of our programme is its emphasis on inter-professional engagement using our links with allied clinical disciplines such as pharmacy and ophthalmology.
Our students undertake extensive ‘work-integrated’ learning in private practice, hospital clinics and through our student-led vision screening programme in Greater Auckland schools.
Studying at postgraduate level will allow you to broaden your skills and pursue your interests in the field with opportunities provided for self-directed research.

The School of Optometry and Vision Science occupies modern space at out Grafton Campus (overlooking the Auckland Domain), incorporating its own Eye Clinic, teaching laboratories (including a virtual reality simulation suite) and state-of-the-art research facilities.

When you join us for your doctorate in the School of Optometry and Vision Science, you'll be part of a high-calibre research community and trained to conduct vision research to the very highest standard. This will include the opportunity to publish papers, attend international conferences and develop your network in academia and industry.

We welcome research proposals in topics relating to our key research specialisations:

Myopia laboratory

• Investigating the design, use and treatment of special contact lenses to slow the progression of myopia (short-sightedness).

Neural plasticity

• Exploring the brain’s remarkable ability to adapt to changes in the visual environment. For example, research on amblyopia (‘lazy eye’, which affects 3% of children) has led to video game treatments that tap into neural plasticity to improve vision and are proving a popular alternative to eye-patching.

Virtual reality

• Virtual reality (VR) is an increasingly popular consumer technology that offers unique opportunities for testing vision in complex/realistic visual environments. Ongoing projects in the school explore the use of VR in a range of settings: from measuring peripheral vision to exploring the impact of phone-use on driving.

Eye tracking

• Using reflexive eye movements to estimate useful vision in groups that can be difficult to assess (such as children). Tracking where children look as an indicator of neuro-developmental conditions such as autism spectrum disorder.

Retinal degeneration

• Investigations into mechanisms of retinal degeneration in the aging eye, including diabetes and visual function loss in Alzheimer’s disease.

Colour vision

• Exploring the visual experience of people with abnormal colour vision, and developing equipment to help certain professionals (e.g. optometrists) overcome resulting difficulties. Studies of colour vision in animals.

Clinical research

• Evaluating factors that influence visual development in infants and children. Comparing novel and established methods of measuring refractive error.

Community Eye Health

• Improving knowledge and understanding of eye health in Aotearoa. Developing and testing solutions to improve access to eye health services for all, with a particular awareness of Māori health advancement needs.