From a vision to a story of success – that’s how you can summarize the path of the Master of Science “Vision Science and Business (Optometry)” of the Aalen University. The program is turning 20 years old and it will be celebrated in two big upcoming events in the July and November of this year.
The initial idea of establishing a master program came from Prof. Dr. h.c. Dietmar Kümmel and Prof. Dr. Anna Nagl. Back in 1999 were the first negotiations held by the Aalen University and Colleges of Optometry from of the USA. Since the start of the program in 2002 the New England College of Optometry from Boston (MA) and the College of Optometry of the Pacific University from Forest Grove (OR) are sending their own very experienced professors to Aalen and they are bringing the latest cognitions and all their knowledge about Primary Eye Care, Ocular Diseases, Binocular Vision, Vision Therapy, Pediatric Optometry and about many other fields of optometry with them. The program started with six students in 2002 and since then the amount of students increased constantly to nowadays over twenty students, who are developing their optometric skills to an international level.
The Master is standing for a very high standard in the theory and in the practical classes as well. The students always have the oppurtunity to try out the latest knowledge and skills they gained. So they are building up automatisms from the beginning on. With this way of studying the students are able to keep a maximum amount of information in the head and are also perfectly prepared for the work with the actual customers and patients. The experienced american professors also know how to combine theory and practice perfectly. The practical labs are supervised by alumni from german-speaking areas and are able to offer indiviual help, which guarentees a maximum learning effect. In the beginning there were mostly students from Germany, but nowadays it is very international and we are happy to welcome students and colleagues from Austria, Switzerland, Nepal, India, Columbia, Slovenia, Croatia and Korea.
The 20th anniversary is getting celebrated at the anual “Alumni-Meeting” in Benediktbeuern on the weekend of the 02.07.2022 and 03.07.2022. The event, which is getting organized by the Alumni-Association “Aalen Friends of Optometry e.V.”, is meant for continuing education, meeting colleagues from all over the world and it also marks the start for the new semester.
The Alumni-Association invited many guest-speakers, mainly from the USA, to celebrate the birthday appropriately. Part of the event in Benediktbeuern will be Prof. Bina Patel, Prof. Diane Adamczyk, Prof. Hannu Laukkanen and Prof. Graham Erickson. On top there will be also some fantastic speakers from europe, like Prof. Dr. Frank Schaeffel from the university hospital Tübingen.
Besides the event in Benediktbeuern will be a symposium about the future of optometry on the 11th of November 2022.
We still have open spaces fo the upcoming semester, which starts on the First of July 2022. Don’t hesitate to contact us and we are looking forward to recieve your application!