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Overview of the Department of Optometry & Vision Sciences at the University of Melbourne
The Department of Optometry and Vision Sciences is one of the nine academic departments/schools within the Faculty of Science at the University of Melbourne, and is one of only three Australian Universities to offer a Bachelor of Optometry degree. The Department currently comprises twenty-four academic staff (10 teaching and research, 2 teaching only and 12 research only), and ten professional staff (5 technical and 5 administrative).
The Department offers a five-year Bachelor of Optometry degree and teaches subjects in the optical and vision sciences, which can be taken to complete a Bachelor of Science degree. Approximately 230 students are enrolled in the current 5 year undergraduate optometry course. The Department will from 2011 offer a 4 year Doctor of Optometry postgraduate degree as part of the new Melbourne Model. All students will require an undergraduate degree in Science or Biomedical studies to gain entry.
The Department offers further professional training through its Postgraduate Certificate in Ocular Therapeutics and Postgraduate Diploma in Advanced Clinical Optometry, specifically aimed at advancing clinical knowledge for practising optometrists.
The Department has a vigorous and expanding research program in vision sciences with particular emphasis on the research areas of i) the biological foundations of ocular disease; ii) visual neuroscience and visual neurophysiology. In addition the Department works closely with the National Vision Research Institute of Australia , whose Director of Research is an Honorary Professor in the Department of Optometry and Vision Sciences. The Department offers courses of training by research leading to the degrees of PhD, Master of Philosophy, and currently has around 25 students pursuing research higher degrees at any one time. It also offers an honours year in vision science.
Staff Profile
The Department currently has approval for twelve academic teaching and research positions. The positions currently filled are Professor Neville McBrien (Head of Department), Professor Algis J Vingrys, Associate Professor Trichur Vidyasagar (Reader), Dr Larry Abel (Senior Lecturer), Dr Andrew Metha (Senior Lecturer & Deputy Head), Dr Alex Gentle (Senior Lecturer), Dr Allison McKendrick (Senior Lecturer). Dr Michael Pianta (Lecturer B), Dr Andrew Anderson (Lecturer B) and Ms Anthea Cochrane (Lecturer B and Clinical Teaching Co-ordinator). Additional teaching support is provided by a Senior Tutor's position who is Ms Alexandra Jaworski (Level A). Approximately 50 casual teaching staff also contribute to the teaching activities of the Department.
The Department currently employs 12 research-only postdoctoral staff. In addition, the Department of Optometry and Vision Sciences has an additional full-time senior research staff position and an Honorary Professorial Fellow that contribute to the research environment. These are A/Prof Ulrike Grünert (NVRI) and Professor Paul Martin (Research Director, NVRI).
The Department has an annual core-operating budget in the order of $2.6 million. The Department currently attracts approximately $1.5 to 2 million in external competitive research income each year.
The Department of Optometry and Vision Sciences is located mainly at the northern end of the Parkville campus, with its administrative hub located in premises on the corner of Cardigan and Keppel Streets, Carlton .
Academic Strategy of the Department
The Department is committed to the teaching of optometry in the context of a scientific understanding of the fundamental principles. For this reason a substantial portion of the course is devoted to the basic, bio-medical, visual and optical sciences. The visual and optical science subjects are taught to a greater depth and with greater rigour than is often the case in optometry schools.
The Department has an equally strong commitment to teaching and research in clinical optometry. The Department is the first in Australia to expand its core curriculum to five years to include ocular therapeutics and an increased focus on the treatment of ocular disease. It works closely with cognate disciplines of ophthalmology, microbiology and pharmacology in the teaching of the Bachelor of Optometry. In 2011 the Department will be the first Optometry Department in the southern hemisphere to teach Optometry as a 4-year postgraduate Doctor of Optometry degree.
A parallel commitment is to research and scholarship and to the maintenance of a strong graduate research school. The Department has an excellent record of publication in the international scientific and professional literature. The Department is becoming increasingly competitive in attracting national grants and over the last 4 years has held around 12-16 National Competitive Research Council grants at any one time.
Research Profile
The Department of Optometry and Vision Sciences undertakes internationally competitive research in a variety of areas, including -
• Optical modelling of the eye, wavefront aberometry (Dr Andrew Metha)
• The development of visual function and the effect of nutrition on retinal development (Professor Algis Vingrys)
• Retinal neuroanatomy and circuitry (Dr Ulrike Grünert)
• Visual attention and dyslexia (Associate Professor Trichur Vidyasagar)
• Psychophysical investigation of visual processing models of normal and abnormal vision (Professor Algis Vingrys, Dr Andrew Metha, Dr Michael Pianta, Dr Andrew Anderson)
• Psychophysical assessment of neural damage due to glaucoma (Dr Allison McKendrick and Dr Andrew Anderson).
• The biological mechanisms regulating ocular growth in myopia (Professor Neville McBrien, Dr Alex Gentle)
• Visual electrophysiology (Professor Paul Martin, Associate Professor Trichur Vidyasagar and Dr Andrew Metha)
• Eye movement disorders (Dr Larry Abel, Dr Andrew Anderson)
• Retinal Degeneration (Dr Michael Pianta)
• Neuropharmacology of eye growth in myopia (Professor Neville McBrien)
• Colour Vision Pathways (Professor Paul Martin, Dr Ulrike Grünert)
• The ocular response to virtual imagery (Professor Neville McBrien)
Details of the Department's research laboratories can be found here. The recent research activities and achievements of the Department are reported in the 2006/7 Highlights Report.
Facilities in the Department
Buildings
The Department is housed in a complex of buildings at the northern end of the Parkville campus.
In 2004 the Department opened a state-of-the-art pre-Clinical Teaching facility, and in 2006 opened a custom-fitted teaching laboratory in the Redmond Barry Building , located on the northern corner of the main campus. In 2008 the Department is relocating its pre-clinical teaching laboratory and student common room to the McCoy Building . This enables substantial space for the location of a new research group in the main Optometry building with other research laboratories. The Department will also occupy several research laboratories in the new Neuroscience and Developmental Biology Institute currently under construction on Royal Parade and scheduled for completion for 2010.
Equipment
With the aid of infrastructure grants obtained from the University of Melbourne, the Department of Health and Community Services and the Australian Research Council, the research laboratories of the Department are well equipped.
The Department's facilities include:
• modern well equipped laboratories for both biological (PC2 Level in several cases) and biochemical studies and clinical studies
• an extensive computer network within the building supported by its own file server which is linked to the University computer centre and to the internet. This includes a network linked video projector in the lecture theatre.
• centralised facilities for histological preparation, light microscopy and image analysis which includes a recently purchased Zeiss deconvolution microscope, freezing microtome, ultramicrotome, Zeiss Axiophot 2 and analytical software for image processing
• laboratories that are set up for molecular biology work, including Real-Time PCR and DNA sequencer
• laboratories that are set up for psychophysical studies of the visual system
• Clinical vision research facilities for the conduct of clinical trials or clinical research.
• A modern electrodiagnostic facility (LKC Universal 2000 UTAS-E)
• laboratories for single cell electrophysiology in primate. Including the latest optical imaging equipment
• a Zeiss Stratus Optical coherence tomographer and a Heidelberg retinal tomographer
• Cell and tissue culture facilities including 3 dimensional cell culture systems
Further details of the Department's research activities can be found on its website.
The Faculty of Science
The Faculty of Science was established in 1887, although the first record of graduates in Science at the University dates back to 1863. It is one of the University's largest faculties with some 7,000 undergraduate and postgraduate students, with an annual budget in the order of $95m.
The Faculty of Science has a deserved reputation for the delivery of high quality teaching and research programs across a breadth of disciplines. The subjects and courses offered are integral to the quality of a significant number of the educational programs in other faculties. The Faculty has a long-standing and distinguished record of providing postgraduate education at the Masters and Doctoral levels and it has established strong international research and research education linkages within the USA , Europe and throughout the Asian region.
The Faculty is made up of four Schools and five Departments as follows: Schools of Botany, Chemistry, Earth Sciences and Physics; and the Departments of Genetics, Information Systems, Mathematics and Statistics, Optometry and Vision Sciences and Zoology. The Faculty is a partner in the newly established Bio21 Institute and in a new Neuroscience and Developmental Biology Institute to be completed by 2010.
The Faculty, through its Departments and Centres, is active in professional development, continuing education nationally and internationally, and in links to schools and the community. The Faculty is currently a partner in 20 externally funded research centres. There are five Federation Fellows, two Laureate Professors, 33 Professors and 7 Professorial Fellows in the Faculty.
The University of Melbourne
The University of Melbourne is a leading international university with a tradition of excellence in teaching and research. Melbourne 's outstanding performance in international rankings puts it at the forefront of higher education in the Asia-Pacific region and the world. The University of Melbourne is consistently ranked by the THES among the world's top 25 universities.
Established in 1853, shortly after the founding of Melbourne , the University is located just a few minutes from the centre of this global city. The main Parkville campus is recognised as the hub of Australia 's premier knowledge precinct comprising eight hospitals, many leading research institutes and a wide range of knowledge-based industries.
The University employs people of outstanding calibre and offers a unique environment where staff are valued and rewarded. Further information about working at The University of Melbourne is available at www.hr.unimelb.edu.au/careers
Rankings place the University of Melbourne amongst the best in the world:
Overall world ranking: 32
Peer review by world's top 20: 10
World discipline rankings:
Arts and Humanities 7
Biomedicine 7
Social Sciences 10
Technology 16
Science 27
Source: www.thes.co.uk/worldrankings (Oct. 2006)
Growing Esteem and the Melbourne Model
The Growing Esteem strategy, adopted by the University in December 2005, lays out a ten-year plan to fulfill Melbourne's aspiration to be a public-spirited and internationally-engaged institution, highly regarded for making distinctive contributions to society in research and research training, learning and teaching, and knowledge transfer.
From 2008, as the cornerstone of Growing Esteem, the University will introduce landmark educational reforms known collectively as the Melbourne Model. These reforms are designed to create an outstanding and distinctive Melbourne Experience for all students. The Model is based on six broad undergraduate programs followed by a graduate professional degree, research higher degree or entry directly into employment. The emphasis on academic breadth as well as disciplinary depth in the new degrees ensures that graduates will have the capacity to succeed in a world where knowledge boundaries are shifting and reforming to create new frontiers and challenges. In moving to the new model, the University is also as aligning itself with the best of emerging European and Asian practice and well-established North American traditions.
Equity and Diversity
Another key priority for the University is access and equity. The University of Melbourne is strongly committed to an admissions policy that takes the best students, regardless of financial and other disadvantage. An Access, Equity and Diversity Policy Statement, included in the University Plan, reflects this priority.
The University is committed to equal opportunity in education, employment and welfare for staff and students. Students are selected on merit and staff are selected and promoted on merit.
Governance
The Vice Chancellor is the Chief Executive Officer of the University and responsible to Council for the good management of the University.
Comprehensive information about the University of Melbourne and its governance structure is available at www.unimelb.edu.au
City of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Situated in the State of Victoria , the capital city Melbourne (population 3.75 million) enjoys a delightful Mediterranean climate of warm, dry summers and cool winters. Melbourne is a cosmopolitan, multicultural city that is consistently ranked as 'The world's most livable city' by the Economist Intelligence Unit (UK). It received this ranking in 2002, 2003 and 2004. The award is based on a survey of a city's infrastructure, access, education levels, crime rate, focus on the environment, culture and events, its diversity and how connected it was with the rest of the world. Melbourne also ranks as 5th as one of the worlds best "University Cities" according to the 2007 Global University City Index.
Victoria is Australia 's most ecologically diverse Australian mainland state. Within a maximum two-hour drive of the city centre you will find:
• Swimming and surfing beaches
• Bushlands
• Desert
• Snowfields
For more information about migration and living in Victoria visit: www.liveinvictoria.vic.gov.au
Australia is an incredible country in which to live and travel. It is a nation diverse in its culture and environment. Its people are friendly and relaxed.
For information about Australia see the official Australian tourism website.