Phase 2 · Settle your educational base
Your educational base
What ICE means by educational base, the four ways of satisfying it, and why this is the stage to resolve first.
Who this is for:Candidates at any stage
The educational base is the underpinning knowledge and understanding ICE requires for the grade you are applying for. It is assessed separately from your experience, and it is the stage that most often delays an otherwise ready candidate.
Two things make this stage awkward. The first is that people assume their degree settles it — and often it does, but "often" is not "always", and the requirement differs between Incorporated and Chartered. The second is that every route to fixing a shortfall takes months. Further Learning is a real programme of study. An Academic Assessment is a formal submission. The Technical Report Route is a substantial piece of written work in its own right.
So the honest advice is unglamorous: find out where you stand now, in writing, even if you have no intention of applying for another three years.
The four ways of satisfying it
- 01
An accredited or approved qualification
A qualification accredited for the grade you want, usually through the Joint Board of Moderators. Accreditation depends on the exact course and the year you graduated, not on the university's general reputation. See accredited qualifications.
- 02
Academic Assessment
Where your qualification is not accredited, or is from outside the UK, ICE can assess it individually against the requirement. See Academic Assessment.
- 03
Further Learning
Where an accredited qualification falls short of the level required — most commonly an accredited bachelor's degree against the Chartered requirement — Further Learning makes up the difference. See Further Learning.
- 04
The Technical Report Route
For engineers with the experience but without the academic qualifications. ICE's Career Appraisal guidance is explicit that those holding no academic qualifications should make a stage 1 Technical Report Route application. See Technical Report Route.
What ICE asks for at application
Institution of Civil Engineers
- If you are a non-member, or if you have not already provided them to ICE, certified copies of degree certificates must be provided for any qualifications listed.
- The copy must be certified as a 'true copy of the original' — like a passport photograph — by a senior member of your employing company, an ICE member, or a college tutor.
- The person certifying writes the confirmation, signs, and gives their printed name, organisation, position, contact details, and ICE membership number where they have one.
- Where qualifications are not in English, certified translations must be provided.
From Incorporated and Chartered Professional Review Guidance, Institution of Civil Engineers.
What to gather before you contact ICE
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Questions to ask yourself
Has ICE ever confirmed my educational base in writing, for the grade I want?
A verbal 'you'll be fine' from a colleague is not confirmation. Applications have been held up on exactly this.
Am I relying on an assumption about accreditation?
Course accreditation changes over time. The year matters as much as the course name.
If there is a shortfall, how long will fixing it take?
Further Learning and the Technical Report Route are measured in months to years, not weeks. Knowing early is the whole point of resolving this first.
Related pages and tools
- Accredited qualificationsWhat accreditation means, why it is course-and-year specific, and how to establish where your own qualification stands.
- 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.
- Recognition routesIf you are already registered or professionally qualified elsewhere, you may join the process at a different point.
- Route finderAnswer a few questions about your education, your registration and how you are gaining experience, and see which routes are worth investigating.