Allied Health Professions

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How to become an orthoptist

There are 6 approved pre-registration courses at 4 UK universities, across 3 different routes into registration. A newly qualified post in England starts on band 5, at £32,073. Everything below is drawn from published open data, with the source of each figure listed at the foot of the page.

HCPC regulatedBScMSc pre-regApprenticeship
6 Approved courses Pre-registration, UK-wide
4 Universities Across England and Scotland
£32,073 Band 5 starting salary England, 2026/27, before high cost area supplements
1,600 On the UK register As at 1 September 2026

What the job is

Orthoptists diagnose and manage disorders of eye movement, binocular vision and visual development. They test vision in babies and young children who cannot read a letter chart, detect and treat squint and amblyopia using patching, glasses, exercises and prisms, and assess and monitor double vision and eye movement problems after stroke, head injury, thyroid eye disease and neurological illness. Most work in hospital eye departments alongside ophthalmologists and optometrists, and many also run screening and extended-role clinics.

Babies, children and adults with squint, amblyopia, double vision, reduced or unstable vision, and patients with stroke, acquired brain injury, thyroid eye disease, glaucoma, diabetes or neurological conditions.

Typical settings: NHS hospital eye department, paediatric eye clinics, stroke and neuro-rehabilitation units, school vision screening, diabetic eye screening, glaucoma and low vision clinics, community clinics and private practice. The setting changes the job more than most applicants expect: the same qualification can lead to a hospital post with a rotating caseload, a community role where you spend the day driving between visits, or a school-based service with termly rhythms. It is worth asking about the mix of settings on any course's placements, because those placements are where most people decide what they want to specialise in.

Orthoptists are regulated by the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC). That regulation is the reason this decision has a clear shape: you cannot work under the title until you are on the register, and you cannot join the register without completing a programme the regulator has approved. A degree in a related subject, however relevant, does not by itself get you there. Everything on this page is organised around that single requirement.

Protected titles
Orthoptist
Also known as
orthoptics, eye movement specialist, squint specialist, lazy eye specialist and orthoptic
Registrants on the UK register
1,600 (1 September 2026)
Pre-registration master’s length
2 years
Practice placement hours
1,000 hours
Typical first band
Band 5
SOC code
2229

Every way in

All of these end in the same registration and the same starting salary. What differs is how long they take, what you pay while you do them, and how many places exist.

BSc 3–4 years

Undergraduate degree

The widest door in. A full-time undergraduate degree with supervised practice placements built in from the first year, so you qualify and register at the end of it with no further study needed. Applications go through UCAS and you do not need a previous degree.

3 courses Scotland and England

See all 3 undergraduate degree courses · Compare routes

MSc pre-reg 2 years

Pre-registration master’s

For people who already hold a degree, usually in a related subject such as psychology, sport science or biomedical science. It covers the same regulated curriculum and the same placement requirement in a shorter, denser programme, which is intense but gets you registered faster.

2 courses England

See all 2 pre-registration master’s courses · Compare routes

Apprenticeship 3 years

Degree apprenticeship

You are employed and paid from day one, and your employer releases you to study. There is no tuition fee to pay. The catch is that you need the job before you need the place: you apply to an employer that is sponsoring apprentices, not to the university, so places are far fewer than on the degree route and are often filled by people already working in the service as support workers.

1 course England

See all 1 degree apprenticeship courses · Compare routes

The choice between these is mostly a choice about money and time, not about the qualification you end up with. An undergraduate degree is the widest door and the one with the most places, but it is the longest and you carry the full student loan. A pre-registration master's compresses the same regulated curriculum and the same placement requirement into 2 years, which is demanding but shorter — it is only open to you if you already hold a degree. An apprenticeship removes the tuition fee entirely and pays you while you train, at the cost of needing an employer to sponsor you before you can start.

One thing that catches people out: the placement requirement is set by the regulator and is identical whichever route you take. Nobody does fewer hours on the shorter programme — the hours are simply packed into less calendar time, which is why the master's route is hard to combine with paid work.

Where you can study it

Grouped by nation, because the fees and the funding you can claim follow the nation you study in rather than the one you are from.

England 3 universities

University College London London

MSc pre-reg

Orthoptics (pre-registration) MSc

London England 2 years

University of Liverpool Liverpool

MSc pre-reg

Orthoptics (Pre-registration) MSc

Liverpool England 2 years
BSc

Orthoptics BSc (Hons)

Liverpool England 3 years UCAS B520

University of Sheffield Sheffield

Apprenticeship

BSc (Hons) Orthoptics degree apprenticeship

Sheffield England 3 years
BSc

Orthoptics BMedSci

Sheffield England 3 years UCAS B520

Scotland 1 university

Glasgow Caledonian University Glasgow

BSc

Orthoptics BSc (Hons)

Glasgow Scotland 4 years UCAS B520

Where you study matters less for the qualification than for the practicalities around it. Every course in this list leads to the same registration, so no university on it gives you a qualification another does not. What it does change is how far you travel: placements are allocated across a region, not next to campus, and on a course with a wide placement circuit you can find yourself commuting an hour each way for weeks at a time. Ask each university how its placement circuit works and whether travel is reimbursed before you rank your choices.

The second thing worth checking is the intake pattern. Some programmes run a single September start, others take a January cohort as well, and a few run the apprenticeship and the full-time degree in parallel with shared teaching. Those details are on the individual course pages, along with the typical offer where the university publishes one.

What it pays

Agenda for Change, England, 2026/27. Pay is set nationally, so the same band pays the same at every NHS employer in the nation. A blank cell means the published circular does not give that figure.

The career ladder for orthoptists in England
Band Stage Starting Top of band What it means here
Band 5 Newly qualified Typical first post £32,073 £39,043 The first post after registration. Most newly qualified orthoptists spend it rotating between services so they see the breadth of the work before choosing a specialty.
Band 6 Specialist £39,959 £48,117 A defined specialty and your own caseload, usually with students or assistants to supervise. This is where most orthoptists spend the largest part of their career.
Band 7 Advanced or team lead £49,387 £56,515 Advanced practice, complex or high-risk caseloads, or running a team. Progression here depends on a post existing rather than on time served.
Band 8a Consultant or service lead £57,528 £64,750 Service-wide responsibility — a clinical lead, a consultant practitioner or a manager. Far fewer of these posts exist than of the bands below.

The ladder is not a timetable. Moving up a band depends on a post at that band existing and on you being appointed to it, not on years served, so the pace varies enormously between services and between parts of the country. In a large teaching hospital with deep specialties there may be a clear internal progression; in a small community team the next post up may only come free when someone leaves. What the figures do show is the shape of the curve: the step from the bottom of band 5 at £32,073 to the bottom of band 7 at £49,387 is where most of the earnings growth in a clinical career happens.

Three things sit outside these figures. High cost area supplements are added on top in and around London. Unsocial hours, on-call and overtime are paid separately where the role involves them. And the other three UK nations run their own Agenda for Change scales, which are close to but not identical to England's — if you are choosing between studying in Cardiff and studying in Manchester, compare the scale for the nation you expect to work in.

Full pay detail for orthoptists · The England scale in full · Compare all four nations

What it costs, and what help there is

Pre-registration health courses are funded differently from other degrees, and the difference is worth real money. Because you spend a large part of the year on placement rather than in term-time teaching, the usual student patterns — a long summer, a part-time job around lectures — often do not apply, and the support schemes exist partly to compensate for that.

This profession is eligible for the NHS Learning Support Fund if you study in England: a non-repayable training grant paid on top of the standard student loan, plus help with childcare costs and reimbursement of travel and accommodation for placements. It also attracts the specialist subject payment of £1,000 a year, an extra amount paid for subjects the NHS is trying to recruit into.

The nation you study in decides which system you are in, not the nation you come from. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland each run their own arrangements, and in some of them tuition is met for you in exchange for a commitment to work in that nation after you qualify. If you train through an apprenticeship there is no tuition fee at all and you are paid a salary throughout, which is the single biggest financial difference between the routes.

England 2026/27

NHS Learning Support Fund (LSF)

The NHS Learning Support Fund is extra, non-repayable money for students on eligible pre-registration nursing, midwifery and allied health profession courses at universities in England. It sits on top of the ordinary student loans system rather than replacing it, so you must be eligible for both a tuition fee loan and a maintenance loan from the Student Loans Company to claim any element of it. The rules for 2026/27 are the 10th edition, published on GOV.UK.

  • Training grant — £5,000 academic year
  • Specialist subject payment — £1,000 academic year
  • Parental support — £2,000 academic year
  • Travel and Dual Accommodation Expenses (TDAE)
  • Exceptional Support Fund (ESF) — £3,000 academic year (maximum)

Administered by NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA), on behalf of the Department of Health and Social Care

England 2026/27

Undergraduate-rate student finance for pre-registration postgraduate (MSc/PGDip) courses

This is the single most misunderstood point in AHP student funding. If you take a designated pre-registration postgraduate healthcare course in England, you are funded through the undergraduate student finance system, not the Postgraduate Master's Loan, even though the award is an MSc or PGDip. That means a tuition fee loan and a maintenance loan at undergraduate rates, plus eligibility for the NHS Learning Support Fund, rather than a single combined Master's loan.

  • Tuition Fee Loan (undergraduate rate) — £9,790 academic year (maximum)
  • Maintenance Loan - living away from home, outside London — £10,830 academic year (maximum)
  • Maintenance Loan - living away from home, in London — £14,135 academic year (maximum)
  • Maintenance Loan - living with parents — £9,118 academic year (maximum)

Administered by Student Finance England (Student Loans Company)

England 2026/27

Postgraduate Master's Loan (England)

The Postgraduate Master's Loan is a single contribution towards fees and living costs for a standalone master's degree, paid direct to the student. It is deliberately not the route for most pre-registration AHP master's courses in England: GOV.UK excludes anyone starting a full-time postgraduate pre-registration healthcare course on or after 1 August 2018. It matters mainly for AHP master's courses that sit outside the designated pre-registration list.

  • Postgraduate Master's Loan — £13,206 course (split across the years of study)

Administered by Student Finance England (Student Loans Company)

Scotland

SAAS standard student support for AHP courses (Scotland)

Scotland has no separate NHS bursary for most allied health professions. Scottish-domiciled students on AHP degrees studying in Scotland get the ordinary SAAS package: SAAS pays the tuition fees direct to the university on a non-repayable basis, and living costs come from a means-tested bursary plus a student loan. SAAS names separate funding packages only for paramedic, nursing and midwifery courses, so the other AHPs sit within standard undergraduate support.

  • Tuition fees paid by SAAS
  • Living-cost bursary and student loan

Administered by Student Awards Agency Scotland (SAAS)

England 2026/27

Degree apprenticeship funding (England)

A degree apprenticeship is a job, not a student place. Your employer pays you a wage from day one and the cost of the training and end-point assessment is met from the employer's apprenticeship levy funds or from government co-investment, up to the funding band maximum for the standard. The apprenticeship funding rules explicitly forbid a provider or employer from asking the apprentice to contribute financially, so there is no tuition fee and no student loan - but equally no NHS Learning Support Fund.

  • Training and assessment costs
  • Apprentice financial contribution — £0 apprenticeship
  • Government contribution for non-levy employers
  • Apprentice wage

Administered by Department for Education / Skills England, through the employer's apprenticeship service account

The apprenticeship route

You apply to an employer, not to a university. The employer funds the training through the apprenticeship levy, you are paid a salary from the first day, and you qualify with the same registration as everyone else.

Level 6

Orthoptist

Entry requirements are determined by the employer and the university, but typically include 3 A levels (to include a science subject) or equivalent qualifications. English and maths must be completed in line with the apprenticeship funding rules.

3 years Funding band £25,000 ST1272

Leads to HCPC registration as an orthoptist

All allied health apprenticeship standards

The job market

Published workforce, vacancy and earnings statistics for this profession. Each figure carries its own reference period — read them together rather than as a single snapshot.

Labour market statistics for orthoptists
Measure Value Geography Period
HCPC registrants on the 'Orthoptists' part of the Register (all application routes) 1,592 registrants United Kingdom (HCPC Register; includes registrants trained outside the UK) 1 April 2025
People in employment in the UK in SOC 2020 unit group 2229 (Therapy professionals n.e.c.), Annual Population Survey estimate 51,800 people in employment United Kingdom 31 March 2026
Median gross annual pay, full-time employee jobs (ASHE Table 14.7a, SOC 2020 2229) £37,599 United Kingdom 2025
Mean gross annual pay, full-time employee jobs (ASHE Table 14.7a, SOC 2020 2229) £39,897 United Kingdom 2025

Vacancies and workforce by region

Common questions

How long does it take to become an orthoptist?

The pre-registration master’s takes 2 years if you already have a degree and the apprenticeship typically runs for 3 years while you are employed. You can register with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) and start work as soon as you have completed an approved programme — there is no separate pre-registration year afterwards.

What A levels or qualifications do you need to become an orthoptist?

There is no single national entry requirement. Universities set their own offers, and they vary a lot: some ask for a science A level, some accept any subjects, and most accept an Access to Higher Education diploma or a relevant BTEC. Almost all ask for GCSE English and maths at the grade the university states, and every course requires an enhanced DBS check and an occupational health clearance because of the placements. 4 of the 6 courses listed here publish a typical offer — those are shown on the individual course pages so you can compare them directly.

How much do orthoptists earn in the NHS?

Newly qualified orthoptists in England usually start on band 5 of the Agenda for Change scale, which begins at £32,073 in 2026/27. Band 6, the usual specialist grade, starts at £39,959. Pay is set nationally, so it does not vary between employers, though high cost area supplements are added in and around London.

Where can you study to become an orthoptist in the UK?

6 approved pre-registration courses are listed at 4 UK universities, across England and Scotland. Only a programme approved by the regulator leads to registration, so check the approval status before you apply — a related degree that is not approved will not let you register.

Is there an orthoptist apprenticeship?

Yes. Orthoptist (level 6) is an approved standard that leads to registration. You apply to an employer rather than to a university, you are paid throughout, and you pay no tuition fee — but there are far fewer places than on the degree route.

What funding can you get to train as an orthoptist?

If you study in England you can claim the NHS Learning Support Fund, a non-repayable grant paid on top of the standard student loan, alongside help with childcare and with travel to placements. This profession also attracts the specialist subject payment of £1,000 a year, paid on top. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have their own arrangements — the funding section on this page lists the schemes that apply.

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Go deeper on orthoptist training

Where this page’s data comes from

Course approval, pay, funding and workforce figures on this page come from the sources below. Where a field is not published, the page shows that rather than estimating a value.