diff --git a/cogl/cogl/deprecated/cogl-material-compat.c b/cogl/cogl/deprecated/cogl-material-compat.c
index e79b2655f..3d78a1e07 100644
--- a/cogl/cogl/deprecated/cogl-material-compat.c
+++ b/cogl/cogl/deprecated/cogl-material-compat.c
@@ -81,10 +81,3 @@ cogl_material_set_blend_constant (CoglMaterial *material,
 {
   cogl_pipeline_set_blend_constant (COGL_PIPELINE (material), constant_color);
 }
-
-void
-cogl_material_set_user_program (CoglMaterial *material,
-                                CoglHandle program)
-{
-  cogl_pipeline_set_user_program (COGL_PIPELINE (material), program);
-}
diff --git a/cogl/cogl/deprecated/cogl-material-compat.h b/cogl/cogl/deprecated/cogl-material-compat.h
index 15f9fb081..47023f9f9 100644
--- a/cogl/cogl/deprecated/cogl-material-compat.h
+++ b/cogl/cogl/deprecated/cogl-material-compat.h
@@ -325,53 +325,6 @@ COGL_EXPORT void
 cogl_material_set_blend_constant (CoglMaterial *material,
                                   const CoglColor *constant_color);
 
-/**
- * cogl_material_set_user_program:
- * @material: a #CoglMaterial object.
- * @program: A #CoglHandle to a linked CoglProgram
- *
- * Associates a linked CoglProgram with the given material so that the
- * program can take full control of vertex and/or fragment processing.
- *
- * This is an example of how it can be used to associate an ARBfp
- * program with a #CoglMaterial:
- * |[
- * CoglHandle shader;
- * CoglHandle program;
- * CoglMaterial *material;
- *
- * shader = cogl_create_shader (COGL_SHADER_TYPE_FRAGMENT);
- * cogl_shader_source (shader,
- *                     "!!ARBfp1.0\n"
- *                     "MOV result.color,fragment.color;\n"
- *                     "END\n");
- *
- * program = cogl_create_program ();
- * cogl_program_attach_shader (program, shader);
- * cogl_program_link (program);
- *
- * material = cogl_material_new ();
- * cogl_material_set_user_program (material, program);
- *
- * cogl_set_source_color4ub (0xff, 0x00, 0x00, 0xff);
- * cogl_rectangle (0, 0, 100, 100);
- * ]|
- *
- * It is possibly worth keeping in mind that this API is not part of
- * the long term design for how we want to expose shaders to Cogl
- * developers (We are planning on deprecating the cogl_program and
- * cogl_shader APIs in favour of a "snippet" framework) but in the
- * meantime we hope this will handle most practical GLSL and ARBfp
- * requirements.
- *
- * Since: 1.4
- * Deprecated: 1.16: Use #CoglSnippet api instead instead
- */
-COGL_DEPRECATED_FOR (cogl_snippet_)
-COGL_EXPORT void
-cogl_material_set_user_program (CoglMaterial *material,
-                                CoglHandle program);
-
 G_END_DECLS
 
 #endif /* __COGL_MATERIAL_H__ */