RICS membership grades
- AssocRICS — associate membership, with its own lighter assessment.
- MRICS — full chartered membership, reached through the APC.
- FRICS — fellowship, a senior grade earned later through professional contribution.
When people talk about "the route to MRICS", they mean the APC.
Entry routes
RICS does not treat every candidate the same way. Your entry point depends on your academic qualification and the length of your relevant experience. One route — the Preliminary Review — is designed for candidates with five or more years of relevant experience combined with any degree. That is the route most experienced professionals take when their engineering degree is not RICS-accredited.
Competencies — and the three levels
The core of the APC is the competencies: specific skills you must evidence. Each one carries a required level.
| Level | What it means | What you must evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Level 1 | Knowledge and understanding | You understand the principle and can explain it: what it is, why it exists, and which standard governs it. |
| Level 2 | Application of knowledge | You have applied it in your own work and can give project examples of doing so. |
| Level 3 | Reasoned advice | You have given reasoned professional advice, taken a position, and owned the outcome in front of a client or management. |
The gap between Level 2 and Level 3 is where most candidates come unstuck. At Level 2 you are saying "I did this." At Level 3 you must say "I advised this, for these reasons, and this is what followed."
The Quantity Surveying and Construction pathway carries 19 competencies across mandatory, core technical and optional groups — the full list with required levels is here.
What goes into the written submission
- Summary of Experience (SOE) — a written account of your experience against each competency, at its required level. This is the heaviest part, and the part most often rewritten.
- Case Study — a study drawn from a project you worked on: a real problem, the options available, your decision and its outcome.
- CPD record — your continuing professional development during the training period.
- The Professionalism module — e-learning modules and a test that must be passed before you are eligible to submit, within a limited window before your submission date.
The final assessment interview
The interview is held on a digital platform, lasts one hour, and is conducted by a panel of two to three chartered professionals trained and selected for the role. It breaks down as:
- A presentation of exactly 10 minutes on any aspect of your case study.
- Panel questions on that presentation and on your chosen competencies, for the remaining time.
The panel is assessing whether you are a good ambassador for the profession, aware of the professional and commercial implications of your work, able to understand your client's and employer's objectives, up to date on legal matters, and confident enough to work unsupervised.
How many attempts do you get?
RICS allows up to five attempts to pass the assessment. Attempts made before 1 January 2026 do not count toward that total.
How long does it take?
The timeline varies substantially with your entry route and its structured training requirements, and with the submission and assessment windows published for your region — and those windows change.