Driscoll, Vice-Chancellor of Middlesex University is Britain’s top quackademic, managing to just steal the lead from the University of Westminster’s Professor Geoffrey Petts.
As this post from pharmacology Professor David Colquhoun explains, over the last few years, course after quackademic course has vanished, leaving Middlesex and Westminster more or less isolated.
Since Westminster shut down several such courses last year (and the remainder seem under threat), Middlesex are now the leading provider of BSc degrees in pseudoscience and magic medicine.
They currently run the following courses in Complementary Health:
- Integrated Masters in Complementary Medicine (Ayurvedic Medicine Degree), MCM Honours
- Herbal Medicine Degree, BSc Honours
- Acupuncture Degree, BSc Honours
- Traditional Chinese Medicine Degree, BSc Honours
According to the University website, these are “underpinned by both rigorous academic and research bases”.
Well, I’m not convinced and nor is David Colquhoun, who has already nominated Driscoll for the Golden Duck and who obtained course materials from Middlesex University in 2010.
There is a wicked irony to the fact that you have to be scientifically illiterate (or at least pretend to be) in order to gain these BSc degrees. As Colquhoun quite rightly points out, (here) the Middlesex course materials consist of preposterous, made-up nonsense from another era, taught as though it were an appropriate way to treat sick people.
Driscoll ought to be ashamed.
Although he would be a deserving winner of the Golden Duck, it remains to be seen whether public ridicule has the power to ruffle his feathers.
Full information on the Golden Duck award is available on the Good Thinking Society website. My list of nominees is here.
Josephine Jones 
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