Friends of Science in Medicine, a lobby group of more than 400 doctors, medical researchers and scientists, is urging Australian universities to close down alternative medicine degrees, reported the Sydney Morning Herald on 26 January.
Nearly one in three universities offer courses in alternative therapies or complementary medicine, including Chinese herbal medicine, chiropractics, homeopathy, reflexology and aromatherapy, the group said.
In a letter to vice-chancellors it said universities were trashing their reputation as bastions of scientific rigour by allowing “undeserved credibility to what in many cases would be better described as quackery” and by “failing to champion evidence-based science and medicine,” according to the news report.