At the Oct. 20 Senate meeting, the Senate voted to approve sweeping changes to the Doctor of Optometry (OD) Program under the UW school of optometry. These changes will become effective Sept. 1, 2026 and apply to all incoming students. Existing students will continue to follow the old curriculum.

Key changes include adding an additional academic term in spring of Year 3, developing new communication and clinical lab course streams taken by all OD students, and replacing previously required courses.

The spring term in Year 3 was added to give students more instructional support, bringing the UW OD program “[in] closer alignment with comparable programs in North America,” which give students around 146-168 instructional weeks. The updated OD program at UW will provide around 129 instructional weeks compared to the previous 117. According to the meeting minutes, the added study term also addresses a common student concern of a drop of confidence and competency in clinical skills after the winter term of Year 2 and before starting patient care placements the next term.

Aside from the term sequence change, the two new streams of communication and clinical lab courses were made in response to external feedback from supervisors of fourth-year interns from the program, who report that UW students are “academically well-prepared but … initially … lag [behind] their U.S. contemporaries in clinical care experience,” according to the Senate minutes. The clinical lab stream now adds required laboratory experience courses to the first and second-year curriculum, giving students earlier exposure to essential techniques used in practice. Previously, clinical lab courses were concentrated in third and fourth-year scheduling.

Dr. Natalie Hutchings, associate director of academics and student affairs for the school of optometry and vision science, said that changes were developed with  “faculty-wide consultation” and approved by the faculty council before proceeding to the Senate.

She added that the changes in the curriculum will be built into the entire program. “We have rationalised some existing content, reorganised timing of courses and added some new content,” she said in an email statement. “ The net effect is that there is a modest increase in the number of credits required for the OD program overall, from 33.5 to 34.5 credits.”

Hutchings highlighted the benefit to students from the changes, stating that students will get clinical experience earlier and have a more balanced courseload, “supporting wellness and providing opportunities for remediation if needed.”

She emphasized that all students will be required to take all courses in each thematic stream, and that the streams have simply been better organized and balanced.

Hutchings added that the Waterloo Eye Institute, where students conduct patient care placements, will have scheduling and staffing adjusted to account for the increase in students during the spring term.

More details on changes to the program can be found in the Senate minutes here, as well as on the program changes documentation here.