Objective
To catalyze the formation of a consortium of individuals, institutions, and organizations contributing their respective expertise to prepare suitable candidates for teaching assignments abroad and to assist in the development of the foreign chiropractic association’s ability to interest a local university and have the preparations in place to fill the school with candidate student chiropractors.

The Project:

The proposition:

Hold a conference that will form an International think-tank consisting of experts in Education and International Development to create a methodology, a system that will build a sustainable pool of qualified faculty to start-up chiropractic training programs in poor countries.

The sad reality is that billions of people in Asia, Latin America, Africa, etc., are denied access to chiropractic services and suffer the physical disabilities and economic disparities resulting from a weaker workforce, a healthcare burden that will only worsen over time, and that keeps these countries poor.

LOGISTICS is the central focus word for the nature of the work that has to be done to break the extreme challenges presented when a small contingency of pioneer chiropractors tries to establish a chiropractic college in their poor country. The combining of advanced education, distance-learning, fundraising, and culturally sensitive training of prospective faculty to be assigned for 2-3 years abroad are just the most obvious targets for deliberation.

The outcome will be a consortium of individuals, institutions and organizations contributing their respective talents and expertise to build an entity that will select suitable candidates for teaching assignments abroad, that will assist in the development of the foreign chiropractic association’s ability to interest a local university and have the preparations in place to fill the school with candidate student chiropractors; that will be able to coordinate a business plan with the local university willing and able to establish a Chiropractic Department.

The 2012 Players:

Chiropractic institutions like Life University with active projects in several countries like China, India, Central America and Africa, that recognizes the need to build a “green house” type of process where seedlings can be grown into a viable entity before being transplanted on foreign soil; and that a process is needed in the receiving country to fully develop the project. Other organizations and institutions being invited are the same ones involved in the former successes, in the establishment of the New Zealand and Brazil colleges. Participants are mostly past presidents or lead persons from such schools as Sherman Chiropractic College, Palmer Chiropractic College, Parker Chiropractic College and the Association of Chiropractic Colleges, and the Chiropractic Diplomatic Corps. Eventually, a Regional Strategy could be developed to spawn more college programs in neighboring nations.

2022 update:

Western Institutions in Chiropractic Education may have good intentions, but the reality over the past 30 years reveals a less-than-optimal outcome in advancing chiropractic education in developing countries; thereby, we only find new schools that can follow that model in wealthy nations, ie. Australia, USA, UK.  Insisting that CCE standards, which only became part of the USA accreditation process in the 1970s, to be imposed on these pioneer startups. The truth is that CCEI and IBCE have no authority or cultural relevance to assist in the start-up of pioneer colleges in developing countries. Their cost is disproportionate to the local economic realities. Local government accreditation and local faculty development must be at the center of establishing these new chiropractic programs. It has been too difficult to recruit foreign faculty who will stay and pay the price of institutionalizing their target course program. There is however a need for a handfull of foreign trained DC educators for 1-3 years during the creation of a local Faculty Pool, by forming part of a team that trains qualified and eligible local healthcare practitionners who seek a better professional experience, to undergo a Faculty Training program (FTP) over 3 years, including the one year intership; then become the full-time faculty to teach a regular 6-year course in their country, language and economy.