Research in the BA programme is taught in a lively manner and refers to current acupuncture research. Class exercises and assignments are designed to develop skills which will be useful in practice.
In the first year, students learn to understand and critique published research, so they are able to debate its relevance (or not!) to their practice and the profession. This also enables them to be able to communicate appropriately with patients and other health professionals.
For their second year project students produce and present evidence based talks for patient interest groups of their choice. This project provides valuable experience in public speaking, and leaves the student with material which they can go out and use to build their practices.
Rather than a lengthy dissertation, our students' final year projects comprise a journal style paper and a presentation. These projects may explore a research question of their choice which will have direct relevance to their practice/career as acupuncturists; or they may collect data on the experiences and outcomes of their clinical year patients, providing invaluable experience for evaluating their future clinics.
We also hope that this approach to final year projects will benefit the profession in a broader sense in that it will potentially increase publications about Five Element acupuncture, an approach which is particularly under-represented in research.