A French university has suspended its degree in homeopathy ahead of an important ruling on whether the practice should continue to be state-subsidised.

The University of Lille¡¯s Faculty of Medicine has said that it will not teach the course in 2018-19 amid growing criticism in France of what many doctors have called a pseudoscience.

¡°It has to be said that we teach medicine based on proof [so] we insist on absolute scientific rigour and¡­homeopathy has not evolved in the same direction,¡± said Didier Gosset, dean of Lille¡¯s medical faculty, who described homeopathy as ¡°a doctrine that has remained on the margins of the scientific movement¡±.

¡°Studies on homeopathy are rare [and those that exist] are not very substantial,¡± he continued, adding that ¡°continuing to teach it would be to endorse it¡±.

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The decision by the university in north-west France comes ahead of a report by France¡¯s national health authority, which was asked by the country¡¯s Health Ministry to decide whether homeopathy works and whether it should be subsidised, RFI radio station¡¯s news website.

The report is due in February.

The French are among the world¡¯s largest consumers of homeopathic medicines, which use ultra-diluted doses to treat symptoms, and can claim reimbursement of payment for treatment from the social security system, the news site said.

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In March, however, a group of doctors challenged its official recognition in an in Le Figaro newspaper, describing practitioners of homeopathy and other alternative medicines as ¡°charlatans¡±.

They pointed to last year¡¯s report by the ?¡°confirming the absence of proof of homeopathy¡¯s efficacy¡± and called on the French medical council to stop accepting practitioners as doctors and on the social security system to stop paying for it.

jack.grove@timeshighereducation.com