Read more about the chiropractic program on the School of Chiropractic's website: School of Chiropractic.se

Strategic investment in chiropractic education‍

Manual medicine has long held a strong and well-established position in the Nordic countries. With over fifty years of experience in naprapathic education, School of Naprapathy is today the oldest and largest educational institution for manual medicine in the Nordic region. To broaden its academic base, the institution has long worked on developing its range of programs. This initiative is also a response to industry demand, where both employers and professional associations have highlighted the need for a chiropractic program with the potential to meet international quality requirements. The program has therefore been strategically designed to fulfill both national requirements and guidelines from the National Board of Health and Welfare and the Swedish Higher Education Authority (UKÄ), as well as international standards according to the ECCE accreditation framework. The college believes this development provides the best possible foundation for strengthening the academic status of both naprapathy and chiropractic, and in the long term, for degree-awarding powers for both programs.

The program has been developed in close collaboration and dialogue with industry organizations, researchers, educators, and employers. The college's working group for program development includes prominent academics in manual medicine from Karolinska Institutet and Sophiahemmet University. Information exchange and dialogue have also been conducted continuously with professional representatives from both the Swedish Chiropractic Association (LKR) and the Nordic professional associations for naprapaths.

The chiropractic program will be conducted at the School of Chiropractic, in parallel with the existing naprapathic program at School of Naprapathy. Both educational programs are operated by the Nordic Institute for Manual Medicine (NIMM).‍

Strengthened interprofessional collaboration and maintained professional identities‍

The connection between naprapathy and chiropractic is strong historically, academically, and professionally. The programs rest on the same physiological, medical, and scientific foundation, and a large part of the specializations within naprapathy and chiropractic contain similar components.

From a professional perspective, broadening the educational base will reflect the fact that more and more therapists today work in a multidisciplinary environment. It is therefore both logical and desirable that both programs are offered at the same institution. Interprofessional collaboration strengthens the quality of both disciplines through increased knowledge exchange and a broader faculty, which raises the academic level within each profession.

While both disciplines benefit from collaboration, the institution has great humility and respect for the distinctiveness and unique status of the professions as individual licensed occupations with their own profiles. The new program therefore entails no changes at all to the existing naprapathic education, which continues unchanged with maintained quality and content. Safeguarding and building upon the unique conditions of the professions has been a central part of the program development and will be reflected in everything from the design of the educational program to the recruitment of teaching staff. This is also one of the reasons why the programs will be operated as separate schools, School of Naprapathy and School of Chiropractic, respectively, but under the same parent organization, Nordic Institute for Manual Medicine - NIMM.

‍International developments in manual medicine education ‍

From an international perspective, manual medicine programs are increasingly encompassing multiple disciplines and integrating various professions within the field. For example, a leading chiropractic program in England has introduced an osteopathy track, while Kristiania University College in Oslo, through a partnership with the University of Southern Denmark (SDU) in Odense, offers a pathway to chiropractic training in addition to its existing degree program in osteopathy. This development demonstrates an increasing synergy and exchange between the professions, reflecting the long-standing trends at the forefront of research.

In parallel with this development, an increasing number of countries have chosen to authorize more professions within manual medicine in recent years. In Norway, naprapaths and osteopaths are now licensed, and in Finland, the question of licensure for naprapaths has been revisited in connection with the ongoing healthcare review. This reflects a growing international trend, with several examples from other parts of Europe.

Quality-assured and licensure-qualifying education with student financial aid‍

An external quality review of the chiropractic program was conducted by the Swedish Higher Education Authority (UKÄ) on behalf of the Ministry of Education and Research in the spring of 2022. UKÄ’s assessment is unequivocally positive, confirming that the program meets all quality requirements for universities and higher education institutions in accordance with the general provisions of the Higher Education Act (1992:1434). The institution is thus deemed to have the resources, expertise, and capacity to create a chiropractic program of the same high quality as the existing naprapathy program.

The chiropractic program at the School of Chiropractic is fully eligible for student financial aid, meaning students are entitled to support during their studies; in Sweden from the Swedish Board of Student Finance (CSN), in Norway from the Norwegian State Educational Loan Fund (Lånekassen), and in Finland from Kela. The program is designed to meet the requirements for obtaining professional licensure, issued by the National Board of Health and Welfare in Sweden and the Norwegian Directorate of Health. This provides students with a clear and secure path toward becoming licensed chiropractors with opportunities to work both nationally and internationally.

Initially, approximately 30 of the total 480 study places at the college are planned to be allocated to the new chiropractic program. This distribution will be adjusted over time based on factors such as application volume, labor market trends, and in close dialogue with employers and the respective professional industry organizations. The goal is to ensure a balanced educational capacity that meets both the interests of the students and the surrounding society's need for qualified therapists.

NIMM is very much looking forward to welcoming the first class of chiropractic students in August 2025! Read more on the School of Chiropractic website: School of Chiropractic.se

Helène Schulte MD PhD, Principal
helene.schulte@nph.se

Simon Berg
Board Member
simon.berg@nph.se
‍
The School of Naprapathy and the School of Chiropractic at the Nordic Institute for Manual Medicine
Stockholm, February 2025

‍