B.Optom: Optometry

Optometrists are the people who test your eyes and work out what will make you see clearly: the refraction, the prescription, the glasses, the contact lenses. They work in optical practices and hospital eye departments, in contact lens and low vision clinics, and they hand over to the ophthalmologist when the problem is medical rather than optical.

Five years, not four. UGC’s notification of 27 August 2026 raised the optometry degree from four years to five, in the same amendment that took physiotherapy to five. Plan for the longer course, and check which duration the college you are applying to is admitting under.

No NEET. NCAHP’s curriculum originally made NEET the basis of admission, and in May 2026 the Commission corrected it: admission is on a merit list from your Senior Secondary marks. Of the paramedical courses on this site, optometry is one of the ones where the NEET panic story simply does not apply.

What you need. 10+2 with Physics, Chemistry and Biology or Mathematics at 50% in those subjects, from any recognised board or the National Open School. You need to be 17 on 31 December of the year you join, and to bring a fitness certificate and two references. If you already hold a diploma in optometry, there is a lateral route into the second year.