Aalen Master's students in the „motherland“ of optometry
15 students from the Vision Science and Business (Optometry) Master's program in Aalen gained exciting insights into optometry during a two-week study trip to the USA in the second half of April.
The program was excellently organized by lecturer Katja Schiborr in close cooperation with the professors at Pacific University. The aim of this elective module is, on the one hand, to experience optometry where this discipline has been successfully established for decades and, on the other hand, to get to know the latest approaches in the field of sports vision in practical training with top athletes.
The students spent a week visiting leading optometric practices on the US West Coast. The focus was on optometric visual function training, pediatric optometry and optometric assessment of traumatic brain injury and concussion. The Master's students gained practical insights into examination procedures, therapy planning and patient care and were able to directly experience the skills acquired during the monthly five-day attendance phases at Aalen University in everyday clinical practice in the USA in the academic year 2025/26.
Sports vision at the highest level
In another week, the Master's students completed a practical sports vision module at the College of Optometry at Pacific University. Under the guidance of internationally renowned sports vision experts Prof. Graham Erickson and Aaron Salzano, they analyzed and optimized visual performance in sports. The highlight of this module was a comprehensive sports vision assessment of the university's own professional football team, in which state-of-the-art testing methods were used. Master's student Samuel Burkart from Lörrach is enthusiastic: „Of course, specialist knowledge forms the basis, but the direct exchange with international experts opens doors that no textbook can open.“
In-depth insights into optometric practices and international exchange
Master's student Laura Rohrbach from Switzerland was particularly impressed by the willingness of optometric practice owners in the USA to share their knowledge. For her, this experience is inspiring and eye-opening - both in terms of what is already possible in optometry and with regard to the great potential for the further development of the profession in Europe.
„The professional insights, the international exchange and the many special encounters made this two-week trip to the USA something very special,“ adds Sabrina Gutherz, also from Switzerland. Both graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Optometry from the University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland and are therefore already holders of the so-called gold standard of optometry in Europe, the European Diploma in Optometry (EDO). Despite this very well-founded optometry education in Switzerland, these two students, among others, have decided to expand their optometric skills with the Europe-wide unique, part-time Aalen Master's degree in close cooperation with leading US colleges of optometry - and are very happy with this decision.
Internationalization as a quality feature
Course Director Professor Anna Nagl emphasizes the special added value of the study visits to the USA: „The clinical observations in the very carefully selected optometric practices in the Seattle and Portland area offer our Master's students the unique opportunity to experience the optometric procedures learned in the intensive laboratory courses at Aalen University in practice in the motherland of optometry.“
Source: www.hs-aalen.de
