Julie Hughes

Julie is a General Optical Council (GOC) registrant with degrees in both Optometry and Ophthalmic Dispensing. She is also a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and holds a PG Cert in Higher Education.

She is an educational visitor panel member for the GOC and is a member of the Sector Partnership for Optical Knowledge and Education and Expert Advisor Panel (SPOKE).

[email protected]

Background

Having been employed as a Dispensing Optician since the mid 1980s, Julie took on other roles in industry as a Project Manager before returning to ophthalmic dispensing in 2006 by studying Optical Management at ARU.

She re-joined ARU in 2012 as a Research Assistant to the then Head of Department of Vision and Hearing, and became a full-time Lecturer in October 2013. From here, she was promoted to Senior Lecturer and Course Leader of FdScOD Registerable award, leading the team to full GOC approval in 2016. Julie is now Associate Professor of Ophthalmic Dispensing and the Director of Vision Education, with an overarching responsibility for GOC registered courses.

She has been involved with optical industry, retail, and charity work, and has a special interest in academic rigour and curriculum design.

Research interests

• Low vision
• Academic curriculum design
• OSCE design

Teaching

Course Leader:

• FdSc Ophthalmic Dispensing Registerable Award

Module Leader:

• Geometric and Ophthalmic Lenses
• Preliminary Ophthalmic Dispensing with Mathematics
• Ophthalmic Lenses 2
• Further Ophthalmic Lenses
• Ophthalmic Dispensing 1 and 2
• Low Vision Assessment and Management

Qualifications

• PG Cert HE, ARU
• BOptom (Hons) Optometry, ARU
• BSc (Hons) Optical Management, ARU
• BSc (Hons) Material Science, Open University
• FBDO - Fellow of the Association of British Dispensing Opticians
• FHEA - Fellow of the Higher Education Academy

Memberships, editorial boards

• Educational Visitor Panel member – General Optical Council to April 2023
• Dispensing Optician registrant General Optical Council (2009 to present)

Selected recent publications

Siderov, J., Hughes, J. A., 2013. Development of Robust Methods of Assessment of Clinical Competency in Ophthalmic Dispensing - Results of a Pilot Trial. HSCE, 2(1). doi: 10.11120/hsce.2013.00023

Latham, K., Hughes, J. A. Is a reading addition necessary for clinical contrast sensitivity measurements? Poster presentation, European Academy of Optometry and Optics (EAOO), Malaga, April 2013.

Waugh, S. J., Formankiewicz, M. A., Polczyk-Przybyla, J. A., 2011. Effects of imposed Gaussian blur on contour interaction for luminance-modulated and contrast-modulated noisy Cs. Journal of Vision September, 23, 11(11), 1151.