James Hrynyshyn is a freelance science journalist based in western North Carolina, where he tries to put degrees in marine biology and journalism to good use.
This week's Nature explores the growth of university-level instruction in that most incredible of non-conventional medical therapeutic techniques, homeopathy. That's troubling enough, but apparently it's only a part of an even more disturbing trend: the granting of BSc degrees, by otherwise respectable institutions of higher learning, in fields that don't even qualify as pseudo-scientific, let alone science-oriented. Among the new science degrees one can earn in the UK are:
Geography of Mountain Leadership, Staffordshire UniversitySports event management? Oh, come on, now. That's got to be a joke, right? Maybe Nature ran the sidebar a week early in anticipation of April 1? Nope. Here's a link to the course description. it's a BSc (Hons) no less.Hospitality Management, Manchester Metropolitan University
Police Studies, Buckinghamshire Chilterns University College
Adventure Recreation, Harper Adams University College, Newport
Community Health and Leadership Studies, Sheffield Hallam University
Sports Event Management, Leeds Metropolitan University
So which is worse: cheapening the whole notion of what science is all about by calling "adventure recreation" a science, or undermining the basics of the scientific method by calling homeopathy a science?
The former involves learning how to have fun outdoors, presumably in a safe and environmentally responsible manner, something of which I wholeheartedly approve. But there's no control groups, no randomized, replicated trials, no peer-review. So yes, instruct tomorrow's wilderness guides and park rangers in the best way to exploit our natural treasures, but don't call it science.
The latter is also short on control groups and randomized, replicated trials. Here's an explanation of why from the Nature story:
"Trying to do what I do in that context didn't work very well," says Clare Relton, a practising homeopath who is conducting research into homeopathy at the University of Sheffield and has taken part in a clinical trial designed to assess homeopathic treatments for chronic fatigue syndrome. "I found it difficult to build a therapeutic relationship," she says.Which is why the best thing one can honestly call homeopathy is 'nothing more than a strong placebo effect brought on by an attentive practitioner."
After all, we're talking about a therapy that relies not just on low doses of alleged drugs, but no doses at all, just water's memory of the molecule in question. Still, at least there's an argument to be had and the occasional peer-reviewed paper to read. You can't say that about "mountain leadership," can you?
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Comments
I'm not sure why anyone would put "Hospitality Management"in the school of science, but there are established programs in this field in U.S. universities, notably at Cornell. There are also sports-management degrees offered at a number of major universities.
Most of those degrees would be reasonable subspecialties within a school of business administration. Has anyone figured out the justification for their positioning as science departments?
Posted by: Julie Stahlhut | March 27, 2007 12:42 PM
I agree with Julie that some of these are perfectly respectable qualifications, just not scientific ones. Many of these have a scientific component. I can see how a good grounding in statistics, operations research and general scientific method might help if you were in a management position in a public/community health area. Honestly, though, they do teach that sort of thing at any decent business school.
Incidentally, does "police studies" anything to do with forensics? I can see that as a science degree.
Posted by: Pseudonym | March 27, 2007 10:08 PM
These do seem silly, but what disturbs me is not that these things are studied at University (with the notable exception of Homeopathy), but that they can lead to such a narrowly specialized Baccalaureate.
The idea of a BA or BS is grounded in the concept that the educated person has attained both breadth and depth of knowledge. Spending the Junior and Senior year narrowly specializing in the Geography of Mountain Leadership may (I imagine) qualify one to be an excellent Park Ranger or Mountie, but can we confidently call such a person "broadly educated"? These studies should be graduate or vocational specialties, not undergraduate majors.
Posted by: Decline and Fall | March 28, 2007 6:41 PM
Looking at two of these in more detail I think this post is unfair. The confusion may be because, at least in the UK, BSc does not necessarily mean the degree is primarily a Science degree.
The Staffordshire course is Geography with Mountain Leadership and it is in the faculty of Health and Sciences under the general grouping of geography.
The Bucks Police Studies degree is in the Department of Human Sciences and Law and appears to have quite a lot of science in it.
I think all the institutions above are ex-polytechnics which got university status in 1992 but are still oriented towards vocational degrees rather than purely academic.
Posted by: Mark Frank | March 29, 2007 10:27 AM
Skip the details; the homeopathic hypothesis is that administering a small dose of whatever produces the symptoms (by observation) of a disease so mobilises the body as to produce a resistance that will effect a cure. Homeo-pathic= same (as) the disease. Somehow the practitioners of this idea did most of their work on making very thin dilutions of the ingredient deemed 'active'. It was a very inexpencive 'remedy' to make and remains so in this new era of 'patent medicine' marketing of 'dietary supplements'. It is a hypothesis long observed to be 'Not Proved'. It never grew up. Dr. Hans Still invented "Osteopathy" with a hypothesis that illness was caused by skeletal misalignment. The Kansas City College of Osteopathy and Surgery is still there.The graduates actually practice "eclectic medicine" and are accredited physicians with a DO on their names. See 'em in the Yellow Pages.
A chap by the name of Palmer took Still's original hypothesis and called it "Cheiropracty". It never grew up as medicine but the practitioners are still with us.
The followers of the homeopathic discipline of dilution denigrate eclectic medicine as 'Allopathy' which seems to mean 'too much'. The homeopathic remedies sold well during the American Prohibition experiment since the diluent was usually 'medical grade' ethanol.
BRY
Posted by: Skeptic8 | April 3, 2007 7:48 PM