The National Institute of Medical Herbalists has historically managed its own accreditation process. This process existed to ensure that consistently high standards were applied in the training of Medical Herbalists. As such and in collaboration with the profession, criteria were set for recognition of training courses deemed acceptable to bring students to the level at which they may become eligible for membership of NIMH.
The European Herbal and Traditional Medicine Practitioners Association (EHTPA), as an umbrella body of Professional Herbal Medicine Associations (Western and Chinese), has also been instrumental in the management of accreditation and has held a reciprocal arrangement with NIMH. Students graduating from a Western Herbal Medicine course accredited by NIMH or EHTPA were eligible for membership of NIMH.
In April 2011 the government announced the intention to statutorily regulate Medical Herbalists with the HPC to ultimately assume responsibility for the accreditation of all Herbal and Traditional Medicine courses and registration of successful graduates.
During this transition period it has been agreed that the EHTPA will manage the accreditation of the Western Herbal Medicine courses at the Universities of East London, Lincoln, Middlesex and Westminster that were previously managed by the NIMH Accreditation Board. This change is to ensure that the transfer of responsibility to the HPC is as efficient as possible by only having one accreditation process for all herbal medicine courses (Western and Chinese) currently recruiting students and which will be approved in due course by the HPC itself.
Further information about the EHTPA Accreditation process can be found at: http://ehtpa.eu/standards/accreditation/index.html.
The following undergraduate BSc Herbal Medicine courses are accredited by EHTPA. Graduates of these courses are eligible to become members of NIMH.
Middlesex University
Archway Campus
Highgate Hill
London, N19 5LW
http://www.mdx.ac.uk/courses/undergraduate/complementary_health/herbal_medicine_bsc.aspx
University of East London
School of Health and Bioscience
Stratford Campus
Water Lane
London, E15 4LZ
http://www.uel.ac.uk/programmes/hab/undergraduate/summary/herbalmedicine-bsc.htm
University of Lincoln
Lincoln School of Health and Social Care
Brayford Pool
Lincoln, LN6 7TS
http://www.lincoln.ac.uk/shsc/_courses/undergraduate/herbal_medicine/default.asp
University of Westminster
School of Life Sciences
115 New Cavendish Street
London, W1W 6UW
http://www.westminster.ac.uk/schools/science/undergraduate/herbal-medicine
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Note that Napiers University (Edinburgh) and University of Central Lancaster are currently and will remain accredited by NIMH. These programmes are closing shortly and no longer accepting new students.
