One of UCLan’s senior lecturers has blasted the university about courses such as homeopathy and Chinese medicine, which he has described as “quackery” and “nonsense”.

In July, Dr. Mike Eslea wrote an open letter to Malcolm McVicar, the vice-chancellor of UCLan telling him to “act now to prevent further damage to UCLan’s reputation” after bad publicity about the courses in recent months.

The letter reads: “Our hopes of being taken seriously as a research institution are being severely damaged by our association with such quackery, but now we are adding yet more bogus therapy to our portfolio. What’s next, astrology? Chiropractic? Psychic surgery? I believe it is time to call a halt.”

This year, the homeopathy course was dropped due to lack of interest.  The course was approved by the Society of Homeopaths, which Eslea mocked in the letter.  He wrote: “It cannot be right for acupuncturists to validate acupuncture courses, herbalists to validate herbalism courses, homeopaths to validate homeopathy courses and so on. By that logic, we could have a degree in any moronic idea so long as there is a National Morons Association to validate it.”

McVicar attempted to silence staff last week by sending an internal e-mail asking them to “refrain from comment or speculation,” as a group has been set-up to review the issues that have been raised.  Eslea has defied this request and spoke to Pluto as he believes that students have a right to know what’s happening, and that he is acting in the interest of students.

“Students have a right to know that their BSc degree means something and is not being undermined by something that is unscientific”.

Eslea, a senior lecturer in Psychology, said that he has been against complementary medicine for around five years.  He said: “Homeopathy is anti-science.  It is based on the idea that less of a cure is better”.

Eslea has been surprised by the amount of publicity that the debate has gained, but felt that it was a debate that was necessary and has been justified by the amount of support he has found.  He said: “I wrote the letter at that time because of the new courses that were being introduced this year. I’ve had a hell of a lot of support from staff, and I’ve had dozens of staff offering to buy me a pint.

“The fact is that there just isn’t the scientific evidence to prove that homeopathy works. I mentioned in my letter that in China, there have been acupuncture studies carried out which have had a 100% success rate, and that just doesn’t seem right. The studies in Europe have had a much lower success rate so the results from China can’t be trusted”.

Eslea said that acupuncture has been widely discredited through placebo tests, and that the willingness of the patient to believe that they are being helped has a bearing in the effectiveness in complementary medicine.  He said: “The placebo effect and belief in therapy is a massive factor in this.  There have been studies in which people with heart disease have been told that they have been operated on, when in actual fact there has only been an incision made on the chest.  The patient however feels better and shows that so much is to do with the mental side of illnesses. I have been doing my own research into this and I think this is what the university should be putting their money into rather than quackery like this. I would like to collaborate with members of staff and students to research this further”.

“I don’t think that the university should be encouraging links with the Society of Homeopaths.  There have been homeopathic treatments for things like malaria for people holidaying in Mombasa.  They are just ineffective and if people are using these treatments that don’t work, they are risking lives”.

Homeopathy course staff members were unavailable for comment. A UCLan spokesperson said: “As a University we value and practise transparency and tolerance and welcome all academic viewpoints.

“With this in mind, and because we have received concerns from some colleagues as to whether the University should offer courses in Homeopathy, Herbalism and Acupuncture, the University has set up a working group to review all the issues. The working group will report its findings and recommendations to the Vice-Chancellor later in the academic year.”

The Society of Homeopaths said that they await the results of the review.  They said: “It is The Society of Homeopaths understanding that the University has set up a working group to review the courses. The working group will report its findings and recommendations to the Vice Chancellor later in the academic year.”

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