About the college
A college for the serious study of Chinese medicine
关于学院
Our purpose
Chinese medicine is a serious discipline. It deserves to be taught seriously.
SCMAT UK exists to teach Chinese medicine to people who mean to use it. Not to skim its ideas, and not to borrow its vocabulary for something else, but to learn the theory, the diagnostics and the techniques well enough to be responsible for a patient.
That is a demanding thing to ask of anyone, and it is particularly demanding of students who are fitting their studies around a job, a family or an existing career. Our answer is structure: a curriculum that builds in a deliberate order, clinical practice from early in every programme, and teaching staff who still treat patients themselves.
We are a small college, and we intend to stay one. Teaching this subject well means hands on bodies, close supervision and time spent reasoning through individual cases. Those things do not scale, and a college that pretends otherwise is selling something other than competence.
We have also chosen to be candid. Chinese medicine is a coherent tradition with a long clinical literature and a genuinely useful therapeutic repertoire. It is not a substitute for modern medicine, and the research evidence for it is uneven — reasonably good in some areas, thin or contested in others. Students told only the favourable half of that story are poorly prepared for practice, and patients told only the favourable half are poorly served. We teach the whole picture, and we expect our students to be able to explain it.
Our story
How the college came to be
The college was founded in [YEAR] by [NUMBER] practitioners and teachers who had trained in [COUNTRY/CITY] and in the UK, and who wanted a school that took both halves of that inheritance seriously: the classical transmission of 中医针药, and the quality assurance that a UK student or patient has every right to expect.
Teaching began in [YEAR] in rented rooms in [CITY], with [XX] students on a single part-time acupuncture programme. The first teaching clinic opened in [YEAR], treating [XX] patients in its first year. From the outset the clinic was supervised: no student has ever treated a member of the public at this college without a qualified practitioner in the room.
A second teaching centre followed in [CITY] in [YEAR], and online theory teaching was introduced in [YEAR] so that students who could not relocate could still study with us. The college was incorporated as [LEGAL FORM] in [YEAR] and is registered in England & Wales as Company No. 00000000.
[FOUNDER NAME], who led the college from its foundation, served as Principal and Head Doctor until [YEAR]. The college is now led by [HEAD DOCTOR NAME] — see leadership & head doctor.
What has not changed is the reason the college was started: to teach this medicine properly, to a standard we would be willing to be judged by, and to keep it available to people who could not otherwise afford to learn or receive it.
Placeholder narrative
This history is illustrative. Every date, name, figure and location in it is a placeholder and is marked in gold. Please replace it with the college’s own account — including the reason it was founded, the first cohort, and the people who made it work — before the site goes live.
Our mission
To teach Chinese medicine to a standard we would be willing to be judged by
Our mission is narrower than it might sound, and we prefer it that way. We exist to produce practitioners who can take a history, reach a defensible pattern diagnosis, choose and deliver a treatment safely, explain what they are doing in plain English, and know when to stop and refer.
Everything the college does is arranged around that end: the curriculum, the admissions decisions, the assessment regime, the teaching clinic and the way we appoint tutors. Where an activity does not serve it, we should be able to justify why it exists.
Teach the tradition in its own terms
Classical theory, diagnostics and the materia medica taught from the texts and in the language that carries the meaning, not translated down to a list of points and prescriptions.
Teach safety as a subject, not a warning
Assessed, examined and revisited each year: needling depth and danger points, contraindications, herb–drug interactions, consent, hygiene and incident reporting.
Teach the evidence honestly
Including where it is weak, where it is contested and where Chinese medicine has nothing useful to offer. This is a professional competence, not a concession.
Serve people who cannot otherwise access this medicine
Through free community consultations, low-cost treatment in the teaching clinic and public education that is free to attend.
Keep study possible for working adults
Part-time routes, evening and weekend teaching, transparent assessment, and fee arrangements that can be paid over time rather than up front.
Our values
Six commitments that decide how we teach
Fidelity to the tradition
We teach Chinese medicine as a coherent discipline with its own theory, language and clinical reasoning, not as a collection of techniques borrowed from it. Where a Chinese term carries meaning that English loses, we teach the term itself.
Safety before technique
No technique is more important than the person receiving it. Needle handling, contraindications, herb interactions, consent and adverse-event reporting are assessed parts of every clinical programme, and competence is signed off rather than assumed.
Honesty about the evidence
We teach what is well supported, what is uncertain and what is not supported at all. Students are expected to be able to say so plainly to a patient, and to recognise the point at which conventional medical care is the right answer.
Open to anyone who can do the work
Chinese medicine in Britain has too often been the preserve of those who could afford to study full-time. Our programmes run part-time, with evening and weekend teaching and instalment arrangements, and we assess applicants on aptitude rather than background.
Service to the community
The teaching clinic exists for two reasons at once: students need patients to learn from, and the public needs access to this medicine properly explained. Our free community consultations are part of what the college is for, not a marketing exercise.
Respect for students
Adults studying a demanding subject around work and family are entitled to clear expectations, honest feedback, teaching that starts on time and a college that keeps its word. We hold ourselves to that standard and invite students to hold us to it.
What we teach
Five taught pathways
Acupuncture & Meridians
针灸学
A structured programme in meridian theory, point location and safe needling practice, taught through demonstration, supervised practice and clinical observation.
DiplomaIndicative 3 years part-time
Chinese Herbal Medicine & Materia Medica
中药学
A systematic study of the Chinese materia medica: how individual herbs are classified and understood, how classical formulae are built, and how prescribing is done safely and responsibly.
DiplomaIndicative 3 years part-time
Tui Na — Chinese Therapeutic Massage
推拿学
A practical programme in Chinese therapeutic massage: the hand techniques, the channel and joint work, and the clinical reasoning that turns a sequence of movements into a treatment.
CertificateIndicative 1 year part-time
Chinese Diet & Lifestyle Therapy
中医养生学
A practical study of Chinese food therapy and yang sheng — the traditional approach to eating, seasonal adjustment and daily habits — taught as cultural and educational knowledge.
CertificateIndicative 6 months part-time
Chinese Health Literacy
中医健康素养
A foundation programme for the general public and for professionals who need genuine literacy in Chinese medicine concepts — what they mean, where they come from, and what they do not claim.
FoundationIndicative 8–10 weeks part-time
Short courses & CPD
Study with us without committing to a diploma
Single-day and evening courses for practising acupuncturists, herbalists and manual therapists — herb identification, needling technique, paediatric Tui Na and more. Open to the public where no prior qualification is needed.
At a glance
The college in brief
- Founded
- [YEAR]
- Principal and Head Doctor
- [HEAD DOCTOR NAME]
- Tutors and clinical supervisors
- [XX]
- Students taught to date
- [XXX]
- Free community consultations delivered
- [X,XXX]
- Taught programmes
- 5 pathways
- Teaching sites
- 4, including online
- Registered office
- London EC1A 1AA
- Registration
- Company No. 00000000 · Registered in England & Wales
Our commitment to the public
A college that opens its doors
Free · by appointment
Free community consultations
Thirty-minute consultations at venues across the UK, at no charge, carried out by supervised students and their clinical supervisor. A consultation includes assessment and general advice; it is not a full course of treatment.
Find out more
Fee-based · enquire
Clinical advisory work
Advisory work for clinics, employers and practitioners: review of Chinese medicine prescriptions, herb quality and sourcing, and training designed around an organisation's own caseload.
Find out more
Enquire for fees
Membership & public lectures
Membership for the public and for practitioners, including priority booking for free consultations, advance notice of public lectures and access to the recorded lecture archive.
Find out more
What we do not claim
We describe Chinese medicine as it is taught and practised, and we explain health in the terms the tradition uses. We do not claim that any treatment offered or taught by this college diagnoses, treats, cures or prevents any medical condition, and we do not present Chinese medicine as an alternative to conventional medical care. If you have a medical concern, please speak to a doctor.
Educational content notice
Content on this website describes Chinese medicine as it is taught and practised historically and is provided for educational purposes only. It is not medical advice and is not intended to diagnose, treat or cure any condition. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional about your own health, and never delay or stop conventional treatment because of something you have read here.
The tradition
针药 — needle and herb
Our Chinese name, 英国中医针药技术学院, names the college precisely. 中医 (zhōng yī) is Chinese medicine; 针 (zhēn) is the needle — acupuncture and the related techniques that work on the channels and points; 药 (yào) is medicine, and in this context the herbal materia medica and the formulae built from it.
针药 is not two subjects bolted together. In the classical literature they are two parts of one practice, and the practitioner who can both needle and prescribe has a wider range than one who can do only a single thing. That is why our acupuncture and herbal programmes are designed to be taken together, and why students on either route learn enough of the other to refer and to reason across both.
The tradition we teach is textual as well as practical. It runs from the Huangdi Neijing and the Shang Han Lun through two millennia of commentary, clinical observation and argument, and it has been reshaped at every stage by the societies that practised it — including, now, this one. We teach the classical framework properly, and we teach the modern professional context in which our graduates will actually work: UK regulation, professional registers, consent, record-keeping, and the evidentiary standards that patients and employers reasonably expect.
We are also clear about our place in that history. This college is not the inheritor of a single lineage, and we do not claim one. We are one school among several in the UK, teaching a tradition that is far larger than any of us, and we would rather be accurate about that than grandiose.
Come and see how we teach
Visit an open day, sit in on a technique demonstration, or simply ask us the questions you would ask any college before committing three years of your life to it.