MRICS is the chartered grade of RICS membership and, for most quantity surveyors, the qualification the whole early career points towards. This guide sets out what you actually have to submit, every route into the Assessment of Professional Competence (APC), how long each one takes and what happens in the final interview. If you have already read our guide to becoming an Associate Member of RICS (AssocRICS), this is the next step.
In short: choose your pathway, complete the structured training or the experience your route requires, submit a summary of experience, a case study and a CPD record, complete the RICS Professionalism module, then sit a 60-minute final assessment interview. Most candidates take between 12 and 24 months from enrolment to the letters after their name.
What MRICS actually requires
Whichever route you take, chartered membership is assessed against competencies. There are 22 pathways at chartered level (compared with 13 at associate level), and for quantity surveyors the pathway is Quantity Surveying and Construction. Every pathway has the same mandatory competencies, covering ethics, client care, communication, health and safety, sustainability and the rest, plus a set of technical competencies specific to the discipline. You demonstrate them through four things:
Metroun LearningShort courses with structured CPD, 20 minutes eachStart ›- A summary of experience. Your mandatory competencies in up to 1,500 words in total and your technical competencies in up to 4,000 words in total (RICS suggests 3,000 to 4,000), each written to the level the pathway guide asks for. This is where most referrals are decided, because assessors want evidence of what you did and why, not a description of your job.
- A case study. 3,000 words on a project you were personally involved in within the last 24 months, showing your competencies applied to a real problem and the decisions you took.
- A CPD record. 48 hours of CPD in each 12-month period of your APC, at least half of it formal (structured) learning. Courses on Metroun Learning count as formal CPD and log the certificate for you.
- The RICS Professionalism module. Four short e-learning modules and a test on the Rules of Conduct, completed before you can be put forward for final assessment.
You also need a counsellor, an MRICS member who reviews your submissions, signs them off and confirms you are ready for interview. If your employer cannot provide one on your pathway, Metroun APC Support matches you with a dedicated MRICS counsellor.
Which route to MRICS are you on?
The submissions are the same on every route. What changes is how much structured training you must complete first, which depends on your qualifications and experience.
Structured training, 24 months
The standard route. You hold a RICS-accredited degree and have under five years of relevant experience. You complete a minimum of 24 months and 400 days of structured training, recorded in a diary and reviewed with your supervisor and counsellor, before applying for final assessment.
Structured training, 12 months
A RICS-accredited degree plus between five and ten years of relevant experience halves the requirement to 12 months and 200 days. The submissions and the interview are identical to the 24-month route.
Accredited degree, ten or more years
With a RICS-accredited degree and at least ten years of relevant experience there is no structured training period and no preliminary review. You show 48 hours of CPD over the preceding 12 months, prepare the same submissions and go straight to final assessment.
Preliminary review
The route for experienced surveyors without an accredited degree. You need five or more years of experience relevant to your pathway, a degree in any subject (or membership of an RICS-approved professional body), and at least 12 months of that experience after the degree. There is no structured training. Your written submissions go to an RICS panel for a preliminary review first, and if the panel confirms you are ready you proceed to the final assessment interview. This is the usual route for people who came into surveying from another discipline.
Senior professional
For candidates with ten years of relevant experience (five if you hold a postgraduate degree) who can demonstrate advanced responsibilities as a senior leader. The submissions are different: a CV with a 400-word personal statement, three 1,500-word case studies and 20 hours of CPD from the last 12 months, followed by the same 60-minute interview.
Specialist
For practitioners with ten years of relevant experience (five with a postgraduate degree) who can demonstrate advanced responsibilities for delivering specialist areas of work. The submission format mirrors the senior professional route, with the case studies focused on depth in the specialism rather than breadth across the pathway.
Academic
For those who hold a surveying-related degree and have undertaken academic activities relevant to the profession over a three-year period. The submission is a CV with a 3,000-word personal statement, a 5,500-word summary of experience against your pathway competencies, four pieces of academic evidence and 48 hours of CPD.
From AssocRICS
Associate members can progress to chartered membership with four years of experience after achieving AssocRICS plus 900 study hours from a RICS-accredited qualification, of which 300 can be work-based learning, independent study or in-house training. The final year follows a structured training approach, or the submissions go through a preliminary review instead. For school leavers and those without a degree, the Chartered Surveyors Training Trust apprenticeship route leads to AssocRICS first and then on to MRICS this way.
If your degree is not RICS accredited, the usual fix is a RICS-accredited postgraduate conversion course, often taken part time over a year, before you start structured training. With five years of relevant experience the preliminary review route is open to you instead. Our RICS Route Finder will tell you in a minute which applies.
What structured training actually involves
The months are a minimum, not a target. During structured training you keep a diary of the work you do against each competency, meet your supervisor regularly and your counsellor at set intervals, and build the evidence you will later write up in the summary of experience. Competencies are assessed at three levels: knowledge, application and reasoned advice. Your pathway guide tells you which level each competency must reach, and it is the level three competencies that the interview panel will press on.
The candidates who find the writing-up easy are the ones who recorded decisions as they made them. Two lines a week in the diary saves two weeks of reconstruction at the end.
The final assessment interview
Once your counsellor confirms you are ready, you apply for final assessment. The interview lasts 60 minutes in front of a panel of trained RICS assessors:
- A 10-minute presentation on your case study, delivered from memory with your slides as support.
- Questions on the presentation and on the case study itself, testing whether you understood the decisions you describe.
- Questions on your competencies, drawn from your summary of experience, and on ethics and the Rules of Conduct, which come up in every interview.
You receive your result within seven days of the interview. If you are referred, RICS issues a referral report within 21 days of the result, written by the assessment panel for you and your counsellor, explaining why they reached that decision and what has to improve before you sit again. Since 1 January 2026 RICS allows up to four attempts per membership grade, with a fifth and final attempt only after 12 months of additional experience, so each attempt needs to count. A mock interview with someone who has sat on the other side of the table is the single most useful thing you can do in the last month, which is why two of them come as standard with Metroun APC Support.
Where candidates get referred
- A summary of experience that describes the job rather than evidencing the competency. “I was responsible for valuations” is a duty. “I assessed the contractor’s application, disallowed the unfixed materials and explained why under clause 50” is evidence.
- A case study on a project that falls outside the 24-month window, or one where the candidate cannot show a decision they personally made.
- Ethics answered from memory of the module rather than from the Rules of Conduct as they apply to the scenario the panel gives you.
- A presentation that overruns. Ten minutes means ten minutes, and the panel will stop you.
- Not knowing your own pathway guide, and so writing to the wrong level for a competency.
CPD during and after your APC
During the APC you need 48 hours of CPD in every 12-month period, at least half of it formal, meaning structured learning with a clear objective and, ideally, an assessment. Once you are chartered the requirement drops to 20 hours a year, of which at least 10 must be structured (what RICS called formal until its revised CPD framework took effect in January 2026), and across each three-year period your CPD has to cover ethics, sustainability, AI, and data and technology. Metroun Learning has 60+ hours of formal CPD written specifically for quantity surveyors, covering NEC, JCT, QS principles and general construction, with a certificate issued for every course you complete.
Frequently asked questions
How long does it take to become MRICS?
On the standard route, a minimum of 24 months of structured training plus the time to prepare submissions and wait for an interview date, so most people plan for two to two and a half years. With five to ten years of experience it is 12 months of training. With a RICS-accredited degree and ten or more years of experience, or on the preliminary review route, there is no training period at all: once your submissions are ready you apply for assessment, so the whole process can take well under a year.
Do I need a RICS-accredited degree?
Not necessarily. An accredited degree is the most common starting point, but experience opens the preliminary review, senior professional and specialist routes, and a non-accredited degree can be topped up with an accredited postgraduate course.
Can I do the APC while working full time?
Yes, and almost everyone does. Structured training is your normal job, recorded properly. The writing-up and interview preparation are the parts that need evenings and weekends, usually in the final six months.
What if I am referred?
RICS sends a referral report within 21 days of the result, written by the panel and shared with your counsellor, setting out why you were referred. You address those points and resubmit for another interview. Referral is common and is not the end of anything, but it is expensive in time, which is why a full submission review and a mock interview before the first attempt pays for itself.
Conclusion
Achieving MRICS is demanding because it is meant to be. Chartered membership tells employers, clients and peers that your competence has been tested by people who do the job. Work out your route, start the diary on day one, treat the summary of experience as evidence rather than a CV, and rehearse the interview with someone who has assessed before. If you want a dedicated MRICS counsellor for two hours a month, a full submission review and two mock interviews, that is exactly what Metroun APC Support is for.
