A university is to teach an alternative medicine degree-- despite a rival institution ditching the subject after criticism that it was 'anti-science'.

Manchester Metropolitan University is launching a degree in acupuncture. It will cover traditional Chinese medicine, incense burning and 'cupping' therapy.

Lecturers insist their treatments are backed up by science and say NHS hospitals and doctors are now using their techniques.

Last year, Salford University decided to stop teaching a popular course in traditional Chinese medicine after it was hammered by critics.

Officials pulled the plug on the over-subscribed course, saying it was no longer 'a sound academic fit' with its profile.

But MMU academics say there is a wealth of clinical evidence to back up the 3,000-year-old needle treatment.

Pennie Roberts, head of the university's health professions department, said: "The course is acupuncture but has a traditional Chinese medicine element.

"The Chinese have been using acupuncture for thousands of years but haven't done a lot of research into why it worked.

"The techniques were looked at by western scientists in the 1970s, who began to understand the theory of how it works.

"The National Institute of Clinical Excellence has recommended the treatment for dealing with back pain and its use has become very widespread in the NHS."

Ms Roberts said graduates would be taught how to set up as private practitioners, with many potentially reaping the benefits of new powers for GPs to order

different treatments. She added: "Many physiotherapists are learning acupuncture as a way of treating muscle or bone injuries.

"It is often used for pain relief as it does not interfere with other treatments and there are no side effects."

MMU will be one of only four institutions in England to run an acupuncture degree.

The BSc course will open for part-time students in September, with a full time three-year degree launching in 2011.

Lecturers will be supported by a link with a Chinese university, whose staff will visit Manchester for training in the traditional techniques.