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Education

Main articles: List of chiropractic schools and List of chiropractic schools

Chiropractors obtain a first-professional degree in the field of Chiropractic medicine. As with the legal requirement to enter medical school, in Canada and the U.S. a minimum 90 semester hours of undergraduate education is required as a prerequisite for chiropractic school. Matriculation through an accredited chiropractic program includes no less than 4200 instructional hours (or the equivalent) of full‐time chiropractic education. In the US, the program is 10 semesters or 5 academic years, generally taken in a course which runs all year through, with no significant Summer break; thus it can be completed in 3 and 1/3 calendar years, an alternate system which several American medical institutions are evaluating. Internationally, the World Health Organization (WHO) suggests 3 major educational paths involving full‐time chiropractic education:

• "A four‐year full‐time program within specifically designated colleges or universities, with a 1 - 4 year pre-requisite training in basic sciences at university level;
• " A five‐year bachelor integrated chiropractic degree programme offered within a public or private university;
• " A two or three‐year pre‐professional Masters programme following the satisfactory completion of a specifically designed bachelor degree programme in chiropractic or a suitably adapted health science degree."

The WHO also suggests that health care professionals with advanced clinical degrees can meet the educational and clinical requirements to practice as a chiropractor in 2200 hours that includes a minimum of 1000 hours of supervised clinical training. Once graduated, the chiropractor may then be required to pass national, state or provincial boards before being licensed to practice in a particular location. Depending on the location, continuing education may be required to renew these licenses.

In the United States, chiropractic schools are accredited through the Council on Chiropractic Education (CCE). The CCE-USA has joined with CCEs in Australia, Canada, and Europe forming CCE - International (CCE-I) as a model of accreditation standards with the goal of having credentials portable internationally. Today, there are 18 accredited Doctor of Chiropractic programs in the USA, 2 in Canada, and 4 in Europe and the UK. All but one of the chiropractic colleges in the United States are privately funded, but in several other countries they are in government-sponsored universities and colleges.

Regulation and licensing

Regulatory colleges and chiropractic boards in the U.S., Canada, Australia, Mexico and U.S. territories are responsible for protecting the public, standards of practice, disciplinary issues, quality assurance and maintenance of competency. In 2006, there were approximately 53,000 chiropractors in the United States and over 6500 chiropractors licensed in Canada.

Organization of the Profession

In each nation in which there is a presence, a National Chiropractic association has been formed, now numbering around 70 countries. All are themselves members of the World Federation of Chiropractic, which is headquartered in Toronto, ONT, Canada. In addition, there are a few other World agencies, which govern or organize various aspects of the profession. The Federation Internationale de Chiropratique Sportive (FICS) is the World agency responsible for governing Sports Chiropractic, and the International Academy of Olympic Chiropractic Officers, for honoring those DC's who have served as Official National Olympic Team Doctors. There exist a couple of other organizations, which have no real mandate from the profession to represent it, but which insist on presenting themselves as World agencies, these include the World Chiropractic Alliance, and to some extent the very small US National association representing the so-called "straight" Chiropractors, known as the "international Chiropractic Association.