Tough questions

Professor David Colquhoun has been looking at the examination set in January this year by the University of Salford, which was intended to lead to a BSc (Hons) degree in Traditional Chinese Medicine (Acupuncture). You can find all the questions in a .pdf file here

Here are some taken, word for word, from the exam paper. If you've got a pen and paper handy, try jotting down your answers to them:

Jing/body essence is vital to the maintenance of life. In 100 words, explain the role of Jing plays in the cycle of human life.

In the "liver wood overacting spleen earth", explain it in detail.

In Chinese medicine, anger is associated with liver and the suppression of anger causes liver qi stagnation. Explain your understanding of the statement in 100 words.

If you feel that all this is the sort of thing that the late, great Ted Wragg used to call "world-class meaningless bollocks", then you will be happy to know that the University of Salford has at last tumbled to that fact and closed this and their other courses in similarly idiotic subjects. Several universities are busy shutting down their worthless degrees in alternative medicine, now that the ridiculousness of what is taught has been exposed. They have been shut down entirely at the University of Central Lancashire, and even the University of Westminster is working on closing them.

So it will soon be very difficult to find any place of learning which provides a course enabling you to become a Bachelor of Silly Rubbish (Hons).