Accreditation

There is a network of accrediting and validating agencies for chiropractic education around the world; the Council on Chiropractic Education (CCE) in the USA and the European Council on Chiropractic Education (ECCE) in Europe being the most prominent. They each set standards and there is a high degree of reciprocity between them. This means that a chiropractor who has graduated from any institution recognised by one council, can usually practise in any country (subject to relevant statutory board exams, immigration/employment laws etc.) under the jurisdiction of another.

In countries where chiropractic has a legal recognition, statutory bodies are also involved in accrediting chiropractic education and the chiropractic profession is now recognised in all world regions.

Regulation by legislation exists, for example, in Canada and the United States (North America), Costa Rica, Mexico and Panama (Latin America), Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom (Europe), Australia, Hong Kong and New Zealand (Asia/Pacific), Cyprus, Iran and Saudi Arabia (Eastern Mediterranean) and Nigeria, South Africa and Zimbabwe. In many other countries where the profession is established, practice is recognised and legal under general law.

In the United Kingdom, following the introduction of the 1994 Chiropractors Act which gave chiropractors protected name status, chiropractic is regulated by a statutory body called the General Chiropractic Council (GCC). Comprising of chiropractors and lay people, the function of the GCC is to ensure high standards amongst the profession by only registering chiropractors who have graduated from a GCC approved college, by ensuring that no-one calls themselves a chiropractor illegally and by protecting the public by administering complaints and disciplinary procedures where misconduct by chiropractors is alleged.