The undergraduate degree in homeopathic medicine at the University of Central Lancashire has stopped recruiting new students after "relentless attacks from the anti-homeopathy league".

The course leaders, Kate Chatfield and Jean Duckworth, blamed low recruitment levels for the decision not to enrol new students on to the course this year or in 2009.

But academics against the "pseudo-science" degrees, led by Prof David
Colquhoun, a pharmacologist at University College London, are claiming the move as the "first major victory in the battle for the integrity of universities".

Several universities run degree courses in complementary medicine, which critics have slammed for being unscientific and damaging to a university's reputation.

In a statement today, Chatfield, course leader for the master's in homeopathic medicine at UCLan, which will continue to recruit students, and Duckworth, the undergraduate course leader, said the BSc degree would be put on hold "until we see what happens with the general climate".

"Of late UCLan has been the subject of many attacks by the anti-homeopathy league.

"Colquhoun et al have kept the university lawyers and us quite fruitlessly busy by making claims for very detailed course information under the Freedom of Information Act," said the statement.

The pair insist the decision not to recruit new students was taken because of low demand for the course and nothing to do with the current furore, despite admitting that "the relentless attacks have taken their toll and it appears that they [the critics] have won this small victory".

The latest demand for information made under FOI has been for 32 identified lesson plans "with teaching notes, power points, handouts".

Chatfield and Duckworth added: "[The university] continues to be supportive of us and our efforts.

"Fortunately our masters course is thriving and we have been asked to focus upon this area and homeopathy research for the time being."

Colquhoun said: "I see it as a victory for the integrity of universities. If UCLan wants to get that sort of reputation that's its own problem but the trouble is that the whole university system and science gets tarred with it. It adds to a distrust of universities and science."

But the university did not show much sign of "recanting", he said. "This is just a chink in the armour."

"If universities condone this voodoo and nonsense, what's the impression that gives of universities?

"A lot of people wouldn't distinguish between universities. I'm not at all snobbish about post-92 universities, there are good people there, but it saddens me to see them doing this to themselves voluntarily.

"It's very short term for bums on seats to destroy their reputation as sensible academic places," he warned.

A spokesman for UCLan said: "Due to a lack of demand there will be no student intake for the BSc in Homeopathic Medicine for the academic year 2008-09. Those students studying on years two and three of the course will continue as normal."