UNB explores partnership to open Canada's 2nd anglophone school of optometry
Fredericton optometrist says distance, too few seats in Waterloo, Ont., program a barrier to education
When Dr. Bronwyn Mulherin had to leave her hometown of Fredericton to attend the only anglophone optometry school in Canada in Ontario, she intended to come back.
"Life has other plans sometimes," said Mulherin, who owns the Downtown Optometry Clinic in Fredericton. Her boyfriend at the time, now her husband, was in the Canadian Armed Forces, so she worked in Ottawa for several years, gaining clinical experience before being able to return to New Brunswick.
But Mulherin said not everyone gets that chance to return, which is why, in her role as the New Brunswick representative on the Canadian Association of Optometrists, she approached the director of the University of Waterloo's optometry school to ask, "How do we get more New Brunswickers, more Atlantic Canadians in the program?"
So it was a big moment for Mulherin when the University of Waterloo and the University of New Brunswick signed a memorandum of understanding last week, setting the foundation to open a satellite optometry school in Saint John.
Mulherin said she knows people who choose not to pursue optometry because they have to leave the region to study.
And there are also far too many applicants for the number of seats available in Canada, leading some to pursue their education in the United States, she said.
Optometrists, who can perform eye exams and detect and treat some vision problems, among other things, typically complete a four-year undergraduate degree before doing a four-year doctorate of optometry.
In Canada, there is one francophone optometry program at the Université de Montréal and one anglophone program at the University of Waterloo.
According to the admission statistics on the Université de Montréal's website, the program received 368 requests from Quebec students in 2024, with 18 places available, and 426 requests from other applicants, with 35 places available.
A spokesperson for the university said those stats have not changed much over the years, but in 2025, there are 56 spots available.
The University of Waterloo's profile of past first-year students for optometry shows 267 applicants in 2024, in a program with space for around 90 students.
Petra Hauf, provost and vice-president academic at the University of New Brunswick, said while the details of how many seats or what the program will look like exactly haven't been ironed out yet, the memorandum of understanding, a type of non-binding agreement between two or more parties that intend to begin a partnership or collaboration, allows the university to hit the ground running.
The next steps will include a steering committee, curriculum development and a visit to the University of Waterloo, said Hauf.
"Now we have a clear project where we work step by step towards hopefully a program soon here in New Brunswick."
She said in an ideal world, the school would be up and running by fall 2027, but she said a more likely timeline is the 2028 school year.
Hauf said the location of the Saint John campus is ideal, pointing to the New Brunswick Dalhousie medical school, the future Health and Social Innovation Centre which is planned for the same campus and the Saint John Regional Hospital just nearby.
She said a benefit to having optometry education in New Brunswick would be that many attendees will already live in the Atlantic provinces and hold strong bonds to their communities, leading them to continue practising in the region after graduation.
Dr. Stanley Woo, the director of University of Waterloo's School of Optometry, said every decade or so since the 1980s, someone will recognize that it doesn't make sense to have only one anglophone optometry school to serve the entire country.
But each time, he said, any attempts at starting another optometry school have not been successful.
Still, Woo said the interest and need for more seats is there, so it made sense that the University of Waterloo take its knowledge and curriculum and partner with another institution.
"There are way more qualified people than we can possibly accept every year," said Woo. "It would be great to provide a Canadian solution for those folks, so that they can stay closer to home, be able to train and then return to their communities to really make a positive impact."
Dr. Brian Dalrymple, the president of the New Brunswick Association of Optometrists, said the need for optometrists isn't necessarily as dire as the need for some other medical professionals.
But as optometry is primary health care for vision, an optometry visit could potentially keep someone from having to see an ophthalmologist for eye surgery or treatment for disease, he said.
"When you have less students getting trained, you have less doctors coming back, and that becomes a big issue for the future, when more and more doctors are going to retire," said Dalrymple.
And rural areas are particularly underserved, he added.
"We're hoping that we can get more [optometrists] into areas like Grand Manan or St. Stephen or Campbellton, you know, where right now that's been a struggle to get these students back to those smaller rural areas."
Mulherin agrees. She hopes the partnership will increase the ability for students to study optometry within the region.
"I love my job, I get to help people every day and I really hope to be able to encourage, foster, mentor the generations of optometrists that are coming up," said Mulherin.
"And I hope we get to actually have them do their education right here."
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