O
n Thursday, October 16, 2014, the Life University Board of Trustees, voted to develop a European branch campus to be located in Rome, Italy.
President Dr. Guy Riekeman reflected on the intense work that the Life University administration has been involved in over the last two years in partnership with the Italian Chiropractic Association, various Italian educational institutions and government agencies. The project was initiated when Dr. John Williams, President of the Associazione Italiana Chiropratici (AIC) and the Association’s Education Committee approached Life University on behalf of the AIC to explore a partnership with LIFE leading to the establishment of an accredited and widely recognized Doctor of Chiropractic Program (DCP). The LIFE Board of Trustees approved the project in concept earlier in the year and authorized President Riekeman and his administration to complete a feasibility study and report back to the Board of Trustees with their findings.
As approved, the Rome campus will offer a Doctor of Chiropractic (D.C.) degree and will be a branch campus of Life University. As such, Life University will be seeking approval for a “substantive change” that would allow for an extension of LIFE’s programmatic accreditation through The Council on Chiropractic Education (CCE) and institutional accreditation through the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS), and if appropriate, an application for accreditation by the European Council on Chiropractic Education (ECCE).
Approved as a branch campus, LIFE Italy will grant the D.C. degree with all of the rights associated with a degree from the main campus. The curriculum, to be offered in English, will be identical to that of LIFE’s main campus. This curricular coordination is designed to allow U.S. students to complete a portion or all of their degrees in Italy while maintaining access to federal financial aid benefits as they would in Atlanta, Georgia. In addition, these efforts will allow students who graduate from the Rome campus to have the same licensure and registration opportunities that are available to all Life University graduates. Students will also be eligible to take the examination sequence of the National Board of Chiropractic Examiners (NBCE). Also, Life University is in conversations with the NBCE regarding international nuances of testing.
LIFE has been working closely with LINK University, an established Italian university, to locate the Life University DCP facilities on a beautiful eight-‐hectare property in the heart of Rome near St. Peter’s Basilica.
Dr. Deborah Pogrelis, Chairman of the LIFE Board of Trustees said, “Life University has a long history of working with groups around the world to make chiropractic care and chiropractic education available worldwide. The Board of Trustees of Life University is dedicated to fulfilling that commitment.”
There is much work ahead to fulfill this dream, but it is the intention of Life University Rome to matriculate its first class in September 2017. More details will be available once the necessary approvals have been granted by CCE (US), SACS and our educational partners in Italy.
We look forward to working with the AIC and hosting a series of meetings throughout Italy to open a dialogue with our colleagues in there about their hopes, dreams and expectations for this program in their country.
Our goals are simple but far reaching: support the development of Chiropractic worldwide, assist Italy and other countries in establishing professional identity and regulation, and help set international standards for education and licensure in partnership with local chiropractors.
About Life University
Founded in Marietta, Georgia in 1974, Life University is a health sciences institution most known for its chiropractic program, the largest in the world. Life University is regionally accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) to award four-‐year undergraduate and graduate degrees in a variety of health care, science, business and general studies fields, and also has programmatic accreditation through the Council on Chiropractic Education (CCE), the Accreditation Council for Education in Nutrition and Dietetics (ACEND) and the Commission on Accreditation of Athletic Training Education. The mission of Life University is to empower students with the education, skills and values necessary for career success and life fulfillment, based on a vitalistic philosophy.
