Phase 2 · Settle your educational base
Accredited and approved qualifications
What accreditation means, why it is course-and-year specific, and how to establish where your own qualification stands.
Who this is for:Candidates at any stage
An accredited qualification is one that has been formally assessed as meeting the educational requirement for a stated level of registration. Accreditation attaches to a specific course, at a specific institution, for specific years of entry or award.
Three things follow from that, and all three catch people out.
The course, not the university. Two civil engineering degrees at the same institution can have different accreditation status, and a course can be accredited for Incorporated but not for Chartered.
The year, not just the course. Accreditation is granted for defined cohorts. A course accredited today may not have been when you graduated, and the reverse happens too.
The level, not just the subject. An accredited bachelor's degree is commonly accredited as partially meeting the Chartered requirement, with Further Learning making up the balance. That is not a shortfall in your degree; it is how the framework is designed.
What to check, and where
| Question | Where the answer lives |
|---|---|
| Was my exact course accredited, for my year? | The Joint Board of Moderators and Engineering Council accreditation records, and ICE's own education team. |
| Accredited for which level? | The same records. The distinction between Incorporated and Chartered matters here more than anywhere else. |
| Does it fully meet the requirement, or partially? | ICE. A partial match points you to Further Learning rather than to an Academic Assessment. |
| What if my qualification is from outside the UK? | ICE. Depending on the country and the agreement in place, it may be recognised, or it may need an Academic Assessment. |
| What if I qualified through an apprenticeship? | ICE, and your training provider. Apprenticeship routes carry their own end-point assessment arrangements alongside the academic award. |
Queensferry deliberately does not reproduce these databases. They change, and a stale copy would be worse than none.
Worth doing
- Ask ICE in writing, and keep the reply.
- Ask before you enter a Training Agreement, not after — your SCE is expected to check this too.
- Ask again if you are moving from Incorporated to Chartered. The requirement is different.
- Keep your certificates, transcripts and any accreditation statements together in one place.
Avoid
- Assume that because a colleague from your course qualified, you will.
- Rely on a course marketing page, which may describe current accreditation rather than yours.
- Leave it until you are assembling the application.
- Assume an unaccredited qualification is fatal. It usually means an Academic Assessment, not a dead end.
Before you assume anything
What is the exact title of my course, as printed on the certificate?
Accreditation attaches to a named programme. A degree in Civil Engineering and one in Civil and Environmental Engineering at the same institution can have different status.
What year was I awarded it, and what year did I start?
Accreditation is granted for defined cohorts. The year matters as much as the course name, and it cuts both ways.
Accredited for which level of registration?
A course can be accredited for Incorporated but only partially meet the Chartered requirement — which points you to Further Learning rather than to an Academic Assessment.
Have I got this in writing from ICE?
A colleague's recollection, a course marketing page and a forum thread are evidence of nothing. Applications have been held up on exactly this.
Establishing where you stand
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Related pages and tools
- Educational baseWhat ICE means by educational base, the four ways of satisfying it, and why this is the stage to resolve first.
- Academic AssessmentHow ICE assesses a qualification that is not accredited, when it is the right route, and what to prepare.
- Further LearningClosing the gap between an accredited qualification and the level required, without treating it as a formality.
- Technical Report RouteFor engineers with the experience but not the academic qualifications: what the route is for and what it demands.