About the college
Accreditation & partnerships
认证与合作
Our position
Where the college stands today
SCMAT UK does not currently hold accreditation from any named awarding body, professional body or quality agency, and it does not claim to. The college is a new institution. Its programmes are designed to meet the standards that accreditation requires, its quality framework is running, and applications are being prepared and submitted — but a framework and an application are not the same thing as an award, and we will not blur the difference.
We take this position for a practical reason as well as an honest one. Prospective students make decisions worth several years and a good deal of money on the strength of words like “accredited”. If a college is vague about its status, the person who loses is the student who finds out two years in that the qualification does not carry what they thought it did.
As each application progresses, this page will be updated with the outcome, the date and any conditions attached. Where an application is refused, that will be recorded here too.
Important — please read
SCMAT UK does not currently claim accreditation, validation or recognition from any named body. Every status shown on this page is a placeholder describing an application or an intention, not an award. Nothing on this website should be read as a statement that the college, its programmes or its awards are accredited by anyone. This page will be updated as each application progresses, and the date of the most recent update will be shown alongside it.
Four things that are easy to confuse
- Validation
- A university or awarding body approves a programme and agrees to award its own qualification to your graduates. It is about the programme and the award.
- Accreditation
- A professional or quality body confirms that a programme meets its standards, usually so that graduates can join a register. It is about the profession.
- Professional body membership
- An organisation admits practitioners and holds them to a code of conduct. Your eligibility usually depends on your qualification, not on the college's own status.
- Statutory regulation
- The government makes it a criminal offence to practise without registration. Neither acupuncture nor Chinese herbal medicine is currently regulated in this way in the UK.
Why accreditation matters
External scrutiny is not paperwork
For students
It tells you that someone independent has examined the curriculum, the contact hours, the clinical supervision and the assessment regime — and has compared them with a published standard. It is also what determines whether your qualification is accepted by a professional body, by an employer, or by a university if you later want to go further.
For employers and clinics
An accredited programme gives an employer something to check. Without it, hiring a graduate rests on the employer's own judgement of a college they may know nothing about — and that uncertainty falls hardest on graduates of small institutions.
For the public
Patients cannot assess a college's teaching. Accreditation, and the professional registers that follow from it, are the mechanism by which the public is protected without having to become an expert first. Given that acupuncture is not statutorily regulated in the UK, this matters more here than in most healthcare fields.
Quality framework
What we already do, whether or not anyone is watching
01
Programme approval and validation
No programme runs until it has been approved against written criteria: aims, learning outcomes, curriculum map, assessment strategy, staffing, resources and the clinical hours required. Material changes are approved before they are taught, not after.
02
External examining
An external examiner with no other connection to the college reviews assessment design, samples student work and reports on whether our standards are comparable with those of similar programmes elsewhere. Their reports go to the academic board and are acted on in writing.
03
Annual monitoring
Every programme produces an annual report covering recruitment, retention, achievement, student feedback, external examiner comment and the actions taken in response. The report is scrutinised by the academic board and summarised to the governing body, with an action plan that is tracked to completion.
04
Student feedback
Module evaluation, a mid-programme review with each cohort, and student representation on the academic board. Feedback is answered with what the college will change, what it will not change, and why — published to students rather than filed.
05
Staff development and peer observation
Every tutor has an annual review and a development plan, with a minimum recorded amount of continuing professional development and regular peer observation of teaching. Clinical supervisors must also evidence current practice and current indemnity insurance.
06
Clinical audit and incident review
Cases, adverse events and near misses in the teaching clinic are reviewed at the clinical governance committee. Audit topics are chosen on risk — needle safety, consent records, herb interactions, referral decisions — and the findings change practice or are explained.
Current status
Where each application stands
| Body | Purpose | Status | Expected date |
|---|---|---|---|
| [PROFESSIONAL BODY — ACUPUNCTURE] | Recognition of the acupuncture diploma for professional registration | [IN PROGRESS] | [MONTH YEAR] |
| [PROFESSIONAL BODY — HERBAL MEDICINE] | Accreditation of the Chinese herbal medicine programme and dispensary standards | [IN PROGRESS] | [MONTH YEAR] |
| [UNIVERSITY / AWARDING BODY] | Validation of the diploma programmes so that awards carry academic credit | [APPLICATION PENDING] | [MONTH YEAR] |
| [EXTERNAL QUALITY BODY] | Independent institutional quality review of teaching, assessment and student support | [NOT YET STARTED] | [MONTH YEAR] |
| [PARTNER COLLEGE / UNIVERSITY] | Articulation agreement recognising our certificate for entry to a degree programme | [IN DISCUSSION] | [MONTH YEAR] |
| [OVERSEAS RECOGNITION BODY] | Recognition for graduates intending to practise outside the UK | [UNDER CONSIDERATION] | [MONTH YEAR] |
How to read this table
“In discussion” means exactly that: a conversation has taken place and nothing has been agreed. Where an application is refused, or where a date moves, the table will be corrected rather than quietly removed. If you are considering a programme and the accreditation position matters to your plans, please ask us in writing before you apply so that you have our answer on record.
What we can say now
We can tell you what the curriculum contains, how many supervised clinical hours it includes, who teaches it, how you will be assessed, what our complaints and appeals procedure provides, and what we would do if the college were to close while you were studying — see the terms and conditions of enrolment. Those answers do not depend on accreditation, and we would rather you judged us on them.
Partnerships
Working with institutions, clinics and employers
Universities and colleges
Validation and credit recognition, articulation agreements for students progressing to a degree, shared teaching in areas where one institution has depth the other does not, and joint research into teaching and clinical outcomes. We are also open to hosting placement students from health and education programmes.
Clinics and practitioners
Clinical placement and observation opportunities for our students, supervision partnerships where a clinic has expertise we want our students to see, and CPD delivered on your premises. In return we offer access to our dispensary standards work and to our teaching resources.
Employers and care providers
Workplace wellbeing programmes, staff training in Chinese health literacy, and advisory work on the safe integration of Chinese medicine into an existing service. Corporate membership gives an organisation a named contact at the college and preferential rates.
Overseas institutions
We are interested in collaboration with teaching institutions outside the UK, particularly in China and across Europe: student and tutor exchange, shared curriculum development, and recognition arrangements for graduates who intend to practise in more than one country.
How to contact us about partnership
Partnership enquiries are handled by the college office and answered by the Principal or the Director of Education. It helps if your first message says what you have in mind, roughly what timescale you are working to, and who else would need to be involved on your side. We will tell you plainly if we are not the right partner for it.
The UK context
Regulation of Chinese medicine in the UK
Acupuncture is not statutorily regulated
There is no UK equivalent of the General Medical Council or the Nursing and Midwifery Council for acupuncture or Chinese herbal medicine. It is not a protected title: anyone may describe themselves as an acupuncturist and begin practising, whether or not they have trained. Statutory regulation of herbal medicine practitioners has been proposed and consulted on more than once over the past two decades, and has not so far been implemented. The position could change, and we would support regulation if it came.
Professional bodies and voluntary registers
In the absence of statute, the profession regulates itself through membership bodies that operate voluntary registers. These bodies set educational requirements for entry, require practitioners to hold insurance, publish codes of conduct and operate complaints and disciplinary processes. Some of these registers are themselves accredited by the Professional Standards Authority, the body that oversees professional regulation in the UK — which means their procedures for complaints, discipline and governance have been independently assessed against published standards.
The practical consequence is that “member of a professional body” is a meaningful statement only if you know which body, and whether it holds accredited register status.
What this means for our students
Because there is no statutory register, an employer cannot check a practitioner against a regulator — which is why we press every graduate to join a professional body, hold current insurance and keep their CPD record. It is also why the accreditation work described on this page matters: eligibility for those registers depends on the qualification you hold and the programme you studied.
Partner with the college, or ask us a direct question
If you represent an institution, a clinic or an employer, we would be glad to talk about what a partnership could actually consist of. If you are a prospective student, ask us about accreditation in writing before you apply — we will answer it plainly.