A Scottish university has become the latest institution to scrap its homeopathy provision after coming under pressure from a campaigner against ¡°pseudoscience¡± courses.

Robert Gordon University, based in Aberdeen, said it had cancelled the Introduction to ³ÉÈËVRÊÓƵopathy module offered by its School of Nursing and Midwifery because it was attracting too few students. The course has been running since January 2007.

A university spokesman said: ¡°It was cancelled as it was considered to be financially unviable.¡±

He added that the course had run only once with a total of just three students, and that the decision to axe it followed an ¡°annual review of provision¡±.

³ÉÈËVRÊÓƵ

The course has been the target of a campaign by David Colquhoun, professor of pharmacology at University College London and an outspoken critic of institutions offering courses in complementary and alternative medicine (CAM).

He lodged a request under the Freedom of Information Act to see the course materials in September 2009.

³ÉÈËVRÊÓƵ

¡°[Robert Gordon] closed the course just before the Information Commissioner for Scotland judged the appeal against its refusal to release course materials,¡± Professor Colquhoun says in his blog. He has since received the material from the university.

The course is the latest of a number of homeopathy courses to have been shut down, with institutions generally blaming lack of student interest for their decisions.

³ÉÈËVRÊÓƵ reported last week that the University of Buckingham had withdrawn accreditation from a postgraduate diploma in integrated medicine ¨C which combines conventional and alternative medical treatments.

This course had also been targeted by Professor Colquhoun¡¯s campaign.

³ÉÈËVRÊÓƵ

The decision by Robert Gordon will come as a particular blow to supporters of homeopathy. The institution¡¯s late vice-chancellor, Michael Pittilo, who died in February, was an advocate of the teaching of CAM and a trustee of The Prince¡¯s Foundation for Integrated Health.

Other institutions to have suspended or closed BSc degrees in CAM in the past two years include the universities of Central Lancashire, Salford and Westminster.

zoe.corbyn@tsleducation.com