Are you looking for a new career, a study that will enrich your life, teach you about life, culture and yourself and at the same time teach you a time valued profession?

The Oriental College, a private university, with worldwide recognition in the field, internationally accredited by the World Council for Academic Excellence and the first and only independent university for Chinese Medicines in the world.

Are you serious about study?

Excellence takes effort and inspiration, not filling your head with mindless facts.
Our formula combines active exercise (qigong) with learning theory, professional skills and culture studies. Each part is integrated with the other and explains about the other. Our study is full time or part time, just as you prefer.

Our Mission

We combine three elemental aspects within our program that makes us different from and more of a challenge than any other school for Chinese medicine study:

• First class knowledge and methodology provision by the Oriental College for your developments in professional skills and professional backgrounds from scientific, cultural and historical backgrounds. Thus you can develop your professional quality without any limits.
• First class academic training by means of anthropological culture studies. Thus a sound insight in the professional fields and their development is being developed by you, giving your career a cutting edge advantage over students from common CAM directed institutions. you will not be equal to a nurse or vetanarian in your profession and you will not be subsidiary to a industrial physician, you will be a true Traditional Chinese Medicine Docter.
• All Oriental College studies are rooted in traditional Self-Cultivation methods. this means you do not only come to understand tyhe why and how's from Chinse cultural theories, but also are strongly guarded against the pitfalls of care professions. you will know how to manage your stress when you apply what you learn and therefore no limits to your achievements.

Practitioner

Within our program you can learn to be an excellent professional in:

• Qigong (chi kung) teaching and /or healing,
• Taijiquan (T'ai Chi) teaching and sports,
• Martial arts,
• Wudang fitness
• Yijing counseler,
• Qigong teacher
• Qigong revalidationer
• Qigong exercise engineer
• Acupuncture,
• Tuina and Anmo massage,
• Moxabustion therapy,
• Herbal medicine and pharmacy (under construction),
• Geomantics (fengshui) and astrology (Mingshu) (under construction)
• Daoism researcher (starting September, New in Europe!)
• Chinese language translator and interpretor

All these studies are combined with the profession of Anthropological and Medical Anthropology researcher. each has unique BA program options.

We guarantee academic excellence and skills, and refuse to be downgraded into Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM, equal status to nurses and vetenarians in respect to doctors) regulations. We are proud to be professionals in the Chinese medicines!

European University for Chinese Medicines and Cultures

To study at a University in Chinese medicines means that later you will state to your clients, students, friends and family that you take your profession more than serious. So, our contract with you is that you later must be proud of yourself for having completed your training. Because we are an independent university and cooperate with many universities all over the globe means we give you the most modern and developed education in the Chinese medicines you can have:

• We are not influenced by politics, like Chinese universities and therefore not limited in what we are allowed to teach or say, we can help you develop a true image of the fields and history of Chinese medicines and cultures.
• We are not influenced by neo-liberalist commercialism, so we do not process you like numbers. Nor do we use old fashioned learning systems where you have to memorize formula's to be able to graduate. We teach you to be intelligent practitioners.
• We do not buy our degrees at a foreign university so our degrees have a true value, namely based on your study results and the many materials we offered you for study.
• We also do not put limits on what we can give. If we get more, we think our students need to get it too. That means life long learning for you and us, just as international law requires. We will keep upgrading you during the course of your professional life as we aim to do ourselves. After you've graduated we will keep monitoring you for professional and emotional support within the Oriental College Chinese Medicines Family we'll also keep supporting supporting you by means of challenging post graduate programs of interest and value to expand your professional ability and reach. We in return hope to learn from you too. you're experiences can be great assets for students and collegues in their developments.
• We help students actively in many ways to pursue a rewarding careers and are continuously involved in creating new job opportunities around the globe or locations you prefer.
• All our knowledge is practice and evidence based. We will show you how to proof the value of your skills and how to produce research to support your research and the knowledge theories according to the needs of the Chinese medicines.
• We also teach you how to stay healthy and fit and use this in your advantage as a professional. Our combined program of qigong, professional and academic learning prevents that you fall victim of your work and supports deep understanding and high excellence in your chosen profession.

Full time and part time study

All our coursed can be followed either as full time or part-time study. You can also just follow theoretical modules or day to day subjects for your own interest or as a post-graduate study or as an up-graduate study because you studied elsewhere and feel (as appears to be a common sensation in non-OC graduates) something is still missing in your understanding and practice. we do not allow you to graduate before you have comprehensive understanding of your profession. the time you need is the time you'll take.

the study field of Chinese medicines

In fact internationally we speak of the field of Chinese medicines and psychology. There are many approaches to health in the Chinese medicines, hence the so many professions we offer above. In all these approaches some things are every time the same: Chinese medicines revolve about ethics, not diseases that are things in people.

The study of Chinese medicines involves therefore the study of culture, of thinking, of behaviour and of society. Why do people get sick, how can we improve health, how can we participate in governmental policy making and professional self regulation?

Chinese medicine is positioned in a 90 degrees angle with biomedicine. Both are scientific, but base themselves on a different science. Chinese Classical Therapeutics always involves a part treatment to restore normal functioning and a part personal cultivation to prevent returning of complaints.

As a therapist you need to have gone through a piece of personal cultivation yourself. You are the model on which you base your ideas of health. To do that last part we have combined Chinese medicine with anthropology to teach you about culture in this multicultural society.

You cannot think as yourself in therapy, you have to understand your clients! We discuss culture, religion, aesthetics, sociology, science and everything else you need to know or you bring up.

Anthropology

Anthropology and medical and psychological anthropology are very important fields of study in modern medicine, philosophy and politics. Anthropologists are requested to actively participate in many development programs of medicine, culture and society. Why? Because anthropologists develop ideas about people.
We believe medicine cannot be studied without study of anthropology in this modern time. If you believe you can just learn some therapeutic tools and they will always work on any disease, think again. How many times did you take medicines that worked? What made that they worked? Because you noticed your therapist understood you and your background.
Anthropology also researches people and their (often personal) cultures (backgrounds). Because of doing so, they can help and assist people in their development as a professional or as a group or as a diseased or confused person. They can do so especially by combining their academic skills and knowledge with the field of Chinese medicines, since the Chinese medicines deal with people and their lives too.
On top of that, you could be come a professional anthropologist yourself by the directions you choose in our programs and support the growth of naturopath medicines in modern societies.

Sociology

In sociology you learn how a society constructs itself and how people organise themselves. Why is that important to know in Chinese medicines study? This is to have an advantage to settle your career for one. Because in the structure of society many problems for people are being produced is another reason to come to an understanding of society. We see sociology as part of the Anthropology program. It will help you widen your view of disease and health, but also widen your career options.

Medicine studies

Who doesn't want to practice a profession that makes her or him useful to his or her fellow human beings, to be involved in the survival of the species, be a hero or heroin in her own right? Everybody, Off course!

Medicine studies when grounded in personal cultivation and philosophy is just that. Medicine that disperses recipes according to bureaucratic rules or that sees people as flesh that needs cutting or chemical adjustment or other forms of mechanistic invasion does not.

At the Oriental College we see medicine as both a technical as well as a philosophical profession where personal commitment to health and fellow human beings is the prime reason why to study something like this. Medicine is the noblest of professions, but also the most complex to study. So expect to work when studying!

Art of health

Health is not something you can buy, nor something you can upload or install in someone. Health can only be acquired through practice. Practice can only come after education.

Health is something we mostly gradually lose through gradual forgetfulness, haste, greed and plain stupidity. Health can therefore only be overcome by recognizing the aesthetics of life, of nature, of activity. Life in itself is due to the way we live it a manifesto, a monument for the way we perceive life. The Oriental college takes that as a core idea in all its studies and professions.

Qigong

Yangsheng Qigong figures prominently in all out programs. In fact, Qigong is the core of our BA program and several MA programs are closely intertwined with qigong as well. Why? Because Qigong is the method to come to understanding of concepts developed in Chinese culture during the last 5000 years. In this we break with what ordinary studies do.

We want you to have a solid comprehension of the professions by developing firsthand insight of meaning and relation within ancient Chinese culture and in relationship to modern culture. It is what Chinese medicine since prehistoric times is based on!

We will correct you during your study on incorrect use of terminology (such as energy for Qi and so on). We firmly believe that Chinese medicine should only be studied from its own cultural context to be able to understand traditional professional literature on health and treatment. By learning this way you also get the opportunity to research yourself and develop a vision on life, society, nature and everything.

Acupuncture

Acupuncture skills are not easy to develop. TCM study averagely focuses on needle formula's and simplifying and mechanizing needle setting. Newer and easyer methods are developed by industrial conglomerates and also electrical and laser equipment to avoid that you have to truly learn acupuncture medicne, and also without actually improving curative effect.

Machines and easyer techniques and formula's are not acupuncture. They are an insult to the profession. Why?

Acupuncture requires deep and thourough understanding why that one needle will be enough to achieve that result to achieve a specific curative effect. This is called excellence in skills, and that is what our study aims for. To achieve excellence you first learn firsthand how your body and mind work through yangsheng (health cultivation) qigong and neidan (internal medicne) mind and body practices and later by investigating the body by developing massage skills. This is the way it was traditionally done, and we think this way is still the best.

Medicinal Acupuncture as a study can easlily be combined with Medicinal Tuina to enhance your professional opportunities. The refined skills needed to perform proper Acupuncture requires good mechanical understanding of the body, but also a certain mastership over your qi, yang, Jing and so on as to apply therapeutics. after your MA is finished you will be able to practice general treatments for a wide variety of problems. In a following docterate you can specialize in any field of interest to you.

Skills can not be only developed from books, you need hands on experience and self experimentation, like in all serious medicines. You do not need machines, you need hands-on practice, intelligence and creativity.

Tuina and Anmo

Tuina and Anmo are some to the traditional names given to massage body manipulation techniques for beneficial and healing effects. Massage is after exercise technique the most important method of Chinese medicine. Massage can help with many problems, but can also prevent many problems to get out of hand when applied in proper medical theory and by skilful hands and minds. Chinese medicine tradition provides this theory, the Oriental College provides the skills and you have to develop the mind!

Massage study is partly integrated at the Oriental College with acupuncture so that you have the best of both worlds. There is always a high demand for massage therapists for helping people to deal with stress and physical discomfort. It is a good start for a career in medicine and it will help you to build good trusting working relations with your clients but also deepen your professional skills beyond belief. Why? Because your massage skills are rooted in our oriental College program of Qigong practice from the onset.

Medicinal or Chinse physiotherapeutic massage is as a study separated from Acupuncture but can easlily be combined to enhance your professional opportunities. The refined skills needed to perform proper medicinal massage requires good mechanical understanding of the body, but also a certain mastership over your qi, yang, Jing and so on as to apply therapeutics.

Where is Chinese massage different from western massage? Chinese massage treats people that are bodies. Western massage only massages muscles and bones separate from the people, however nice it feels. Chinese massage can be firm, soft, rapid, slow, intense, superficial, all upon demand and in relationship to people's body or emotional complaints.
Where does OC Tuina differ from ordinarily Tuina? Because of the qigong skills you can acquire excellence!

Psychology and Medicinal psychology

The Oriental College is the only university of Medicines in the world that gives so much emphasis to the psychological ideologies underpinning Chinese medicines. In fact, Chinese medicines are no medicines when not the mind and construction of the mind is taken under consideration as well. Behaviour, chemistry and thoughts of individuals are after all of importance to the choices that develop health and disease as well!

Within our program the content and purposes of Chinese traditions are being researched for application in psychological and psychotherapeutic practice like nowhere else. Daoism, Huanglao naturalism, Confucianism, Buddhism and other classical strains of ideas thought are all being investigated and experimented with to come to proper understanding of the many psychological and social problems people can find themselves in. these are moreover contrasted with western approaches to show similarities and differences.

Yijing (I Ching)

The study of the Yijing, the book of changes is at the core of many aspects of Chinese medicine and culture. This enigmatic book provides material for long debates over the how and what of life, the universe and beyond, but also about the book itself, because it provides valuable clues as how the history and culture of China could come about. This book is about the natural as well as the supernatural.

We root study of the Yi in practicing its methods and the theoretical ideas of modern and ancient researchers of the book, its ideas and purposes. Deep study will lead you to become great counsellors as well as advisers in many fields of Chinese culture and medicines.

Daoism

Daoism has become a myth in the west. The Oriental College provides in cooperation with Sichuan University a comprehensive program for the study of Daoism where parts will be studied here, but some in China under the tutelage of Daoists. Religion, philosophy and other cultural aspects of Daoism are foundational for the way Chinese medicine developed. Eventually therefore the study will combine with anthropology and comparative medicine studies to make excellent researchers and publicists.

Wudang Taijiquan

Taijiquan is a mystery to moth practitioners. Its modern manifestation as exercise for the elderly is just one of the many facets that come to light in this extensive and intensive study. Through martial arts, Wudang Taijiquan especially, a sum mum of health can be acquired.

At the Oriental College you will find opportunity to learn different kind of forms that will help you to excel as sports teacher and supporter of alchemy based health practices. First and foremost in this training course is the formation of a strong stamina to be able to bear up with the rigorous practices in the higher levels of practice. This is not a course like elsewhere, this is a course that will tax you and make you become the basics of taijiquan!

Exercise for health

Qigong again. Qigong practice is dominant in our program, but can also be studied to become professional teacher at any level of excel lence. To become expert teacher you need to go through rigorous training and develop certain qualities yourself before you can teach. We cannot settle for light programs of 1 hour or less practice. We recommend minimum 4 hours practice per day. More practice develops stout health and clear understanding of health too. Light practice only produces nice feelings and however important that is, it can be cause for disease. And only after you have got that, you can call yourself professional qigong teacher.

Qigong teachers find professional application as physiotherapeutic specialist in revalidation, sports, fitness and spirituality. Direction depends on your choices.

But qigong is not only for developing health. Some Qigong exercise helps develop and stimulate intelligence and creativity. Therefore qigong can provide a lot of support in many other professional skills. Many people can or have lots of benefit from Qigong exercises and many more could because of you.

Qigong also supports by developing exercises, for instance by creating specific exercises for professional excellence in skills. Many companies could use professional exercise engineers that use qigong to train their employees to develop better skills in their profession.

Qigong based studies of Chinese medicine cultures, just the thing to do.