The Great DBH Rant

I don’t want to be seen as a “Quack-spotter”, nor do I want to blog exclusively on quackery. There are more official places you can go to for that. Nonetheless, I came across this news and it is just delicious. Long story short, vice dean for the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) has told (nay – ordered) its staff to “refrain from comment or speculation” with regards to courses accredited by the university deemed quackery by outspoken lecturers. UCLan offers degree courses on herbal medicine and acupuncture, and it regards these courses as “satisfied the university’s quality assurance procedures and duly validated”. It begs the question – Why, if you are confident that these courses are valid for the university portfolio and passed so called quality assurances, are you ordering members of staff to keep quiet? Could it be because it seemed like a good idea back then for cashing in on the “boom” in alternative medicine, but deep down you think it’s not really “duly validated”?

I think until these alternative therapies (alternative really meaning “not proven”) lose the alternative tag and become “just therapies”, universities should not offer them as degree courses, but rather teach good science, train good researchers so we could find out more about these alternative therapies. How pissed are people going to be when 5 years from now they find their degrees completely useless (as opposed to almost useless at this moment in time) because science has proved beyond any shadow of doubts that, well, these are indeed quackeries?