FAQs

Since the pandemic we have refined our online Open Days to give you a really broad overview of the course and a good feel for what it’s like to study with us. These Open Days are held regularly throughout the year via Zoom.

You’ll get to watch a live Acupuncture treatment, chat to students and staff and listen to a comprehensive presentation from the Principal. Book your place and you’ll be sent the link to join the Zoom meeting a day or two before the event.

Absolutely. You’re very welcome to visit us in person as well as attending an Open Day if you would like to. You can arrange a visit to the college by contacting our student administrator. Don’t forget that if you’ve attended one of our Open Days you are also entitled to receive a free treatment in our student Acupuncture clinic, giving you the the perfect opportunity for a visit.

You can Apply Online. Visit our Admissions page for further details on the application process.

For students joining us from October 2024, 50% of the learning will take place online, enabling greater flexibility with other commitments and reduced travel time. The remaining 50% of learning will take place in person at the college in East Grinstead.

In the flipped classroom, the traditional method of teaching is reversed and materials which would previously have been delivered in the classroom during lectures are now distributed in the form of podcasts, lecture notes and journal articles and are absorbed by students prior to the lecture.

Activities which would once have been carried out as homework, now take place in the lecture and the student’s understanding of the subject is further deepened during these sessions through group activities and problem solving.

Because the learning has already taken place when students join the lecture, there is now far more space and time during the class for a more learner-centred approach. The teacher is better able to fill gaps in the students’ knowledge and clarify elements of the previously absorbed materials.

The lecture will either be online or in person at our college in East Grinstead.

Yes, you can study part-time during Years 1 and 2. Year 3 can only be studied full-time. For Years 1 and 2 the six modules are split over two years – i.e. Year 1A and 1B, Year 2A and 2B followed by Year 3. Part-time study therefore takes you 4 or 5 years to complete depending on whether you do both Year 1 and 2 as part-time or do one of these years as full-time. More information is on our Course Overview page.

We value applications from those without formal qualifications as your life experience can be just as valuable. Please see our Admissions page for details about entry requirements for our acupuncture course.

You will receive the professional licentiate, which gives you eligibility for membership of the British Acupuncture Council (BAcC), the professional body for trained acupuncturists in the UK. Our college is fully accredited by the BAAB (British Acupuncture Accreditation Board) who work on behalf of the BAcC.

Each lecture day covers one subject area. The starts at 9.30am and finishes at 4.30pm. You’ll have breaks during the morning, afternoon and for lunch. ICOM has now adopted the “flipped classroom” model for teaching, which allows for a great deal of additional flexibility for students juggling their studies with work and/or parenthood as some of the study takes place online.

Our academic year currently runs from October to June, with holiday breaks at Christmas, Easter and over the summer. We follow the West Sussex County Council school term times.

Assessments take place throughout the year. These comprise both summative tasks (where the marks count towards the final module assessment) and formative tasks (where the marks are not counted but the assessment is designed to help you review your performance).

Assessments include weekly tests, termly tests (both practical and theoretical), projects, presentations, and also final year written and/or practical examinations.

This is a dissertation of 5000 words and represents the culmination of your learning throughout the course. It is essentially the opportunity for you to research an area of Acupuncture that is of particular interest to you, suitable for possible publication in a relevant journal. It shows us that you are able to undertake a short study and apply the skills that you have developed through your learning journey.

We feel that three years, full-time study in acupuncture is required to do justice to the fascinating art of Acupuncture. To offer training in herbal medicine alongside would mean compromising the time needed to cover every aspect of our acupuncture course fully.

Not at all. At ICOM we have an extremely busy on-site Acupuncture Clinic with a wide range of patients and at the beginning of the academic year you will be allocated all of your clinic days. We find your patients for you so you can concentrate on studying and not on finding your next patient.

Yes, treatment is free to ICOM students when treated by a final year student in their supervised / trainee clinics or with the second year practical day groups. There is also a student discount available for appointments with fully qualified BAcC registered practitioners in the Acupuncture Clinic.

ICOM is a small and friendly college, situated in beautiful grounds. We usually have a total of around 50-60 students attending. Class sizes are small – they can vary between 10 to 20 students. We aim to keep the class sizes small as this gives students the greatest opportunity to receive more individual attention.

At present we don’t have halls of residence and all student accommodation is arranged privately. You might already live locally. You can choose to live in a shared house with other students or rent a room with local landlords. Some of our students live in Brighton in shared houses and share a car journey to the college daily. Our notice board has adverts for local accommodation and we are happy to advise if needed.

In the final year, you will be given practice/business management lectures plus career planning and development help. These lectures will help you to understand all the aspects necessary to start your own practice, including planning, marketing, finance and taxation, etc.

When you graduate, we offer spaces in our graduate clinics at the college for a couple of months to allow you increase your confidence. Depending on space, some graduates are also able to work long term from our clinic in East Grinstead.

We also offer a postgraduate support scheme which is open to all graduates, regardless of when they qualified. There are monthly online workshops and discussions and so the newly qualified practitioners can learn from those more experienced.

Of course the answer is yes. As in any profession your commitment and effort will bring reward. You will have to allow for a period in which you build up your practice and client base, but once this is established a very good income can be made. Acupuncture is an area of healthcare that is growing well – it is used more and more each year, both within the NHS and by private patients. Read more here.

These qualifications are recognised internationally, but each country has its own regulations regarding acupuncture. For example in some European countries acupuncturists can only practice if they are also trained medical doctors. Please check the regulations of the country where you intend to practice.