Feb. 18, 2013, 12:05 a.m.

If you were a medical student, would you want to be taught by a faculty that did no research? It's generally expected that medical lecturers are involved in ongoing research.

But there seems to be a different standard for departments that teach complementary and alternative medicine. Many don't appear to be doing research. That's the message from the Excellence in Research for Australia exercise, which ranks the quality of university research.

According to ERA results released late last year, every university that teaches conventional medicine produced enough research to get an ERA ranking. However, most departments that teach complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) fail to do enough research to be counted in the ERA.

Only one university, the University of Western Sydney, had done enough research in the field of CAM to be assessed in the ERA.

UWS received a five, or "well above world standard", for its work. The university offers a bachelor of health sciences/master in traditional Chinese medicine and a master of health science in acupuncture. It also has a CAM research centre, which conducts clinical trials.

Universities such as RMIT, Victoria, Macquarie, Southern Cross (Lismore campus), Central Queensland, Murdoch, Charles Sturt and the University of Technology, Sydney, offer CAM courses.

RMIT has the largest number of degrees in areas such as chiropractic, Chinese medicine and osteopathy. The university also offers a masters in wellness taught primarily online. Students "undergo a personal wellness journey" and can select units such as herbs and natural supplements, food as medicine, yoga fundamentals and aromatherapy for wellness.

RMIT was not assessed in the ERA in the field of complementary and alternative medicine.

The growth in alternative medical courses has worried some scientists. In late 2011, a group of doctors including John Dwyer, emeritus professor of medicine at UNSW, set up Friends of Science in Medicine. It now has about 1000 supporters.

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Research lacking in some alternative medicine programs