Changing your route or pathway

Candidates on their journey to professional membership may be eligible to swap to a new route or pathway. This accommodates candidates who may have gained more relevant experience, changed career direction or increased responsibilities.

Pathway Change

Candidates who’ve had a career change can switch to a different pathway more suitable to their current role and responsibilities. RICS has multiple pathways, which may better align with other competencies and skills.

When considering a pathway change, please discuss suitability, relevant experience, and competency selection with your counsellor. You will need to review your previous experience and determine what will be relevant to your new pathway, this can then be transferred to be used in your final assessment and or diary/logbook. As a current candidate, you can update your pathway in the Assessment Platform. Assessment Platform > Edit Profile > Change Pathway.

Route Change

If you are an enrolled candidate, you may be eligible to change to a different route to membership if you meet the eligibility criteria.

Once you have reviewed the below, please email candidatesupport@rics.org with your route change requests.

Eligibility

Route Change	Qualification required*	Relevant experience & additional requirements
Change to APC with 12 months Structured Training	RICS-accredited degree (completed or in-progress)	5+ years
Change to APC with Preliminary Review	Any bachelors degree or membership of an RICS approved professional body	5+ years
Change from APC to Associate Assessment	None	1+ year of relevant experience
Change from Associate Assessment to APC with 24 months Structured Training	RICS-accredited degree (completed or in-progress)	You need to be in relevant employment
Change from Associate Assessment to APC with 12 months Structured Training	RICS-accredited degree (completed or in-progress)	5+ years
Change to Senior Professional Assessment	None	10+ years (5+ years if you have a post graduate degree) & you need to be able to demonstrate you have advanced responsibilities as a senior leader. Please see here.
Change to Specialist Assessment	None	10+ years (5+ years if you have a postgraduate degree) & you need to be able to demonstrate you have advanced responsibilities for delivering specialist services. Please see here.
Post-Readmission APC Change	Any bachelors or RICS-accredited degree (completed or in-progress)	As above, depending on route change
Change to Chartered Direct Entry	RICS approved professional or vocational qualification	For experience requirements related to your professional/academic qualifications please see here.
Change to Associate Direct Entry	RICS approved professional or vocational qualification	For experience requirements related to your professional/academic qualifications please see here.

Points to note when changing your pathway or route:

All changes must be requested, please email candidatesupport@rics.org with your updated CV confirming your current qualifications and experience.
If your degree is in-progress it must be completed when submitting for Assessment.
All candidates must meet the minimum relevant experience when submitting for Assessment.
Candidates changing to Academic, Senior Professional or Specialist Assessment will be required to complete a vetting process, please see here for further details on our Senior professionals, specialists and academics requirements.
Candidates applying for Direct Entry must meet the specific qualification and experience requirements. Additionally, they must not have previously referred at assessment for the same level of membership they are applying for. Please see here for further details on our Direct Entry route.

FAQs

There are multiple routes to RICS membership, including the APC, Senior Professional, Specialist and Associate assessment. A route change is something the Candidate Support team can process for you if you wish to change your route to RICS membership mid journey.

Yes, depending on which route you are changing to and from, there may be fees to process the changes. For further information, please contact Candidate Support directly with a copy of your CV and proof of qualification.

Route changes are ordinarily processed within 2-3 working days. However, any route changes onto the Senior Professional, Specialist or Academic routes can take up to 5 working days to complete application vetting.

If you are not eligible for the route you have requested to change to, our Candidate Support team will contact you to discuss the alternative routes available to you and the best way into membership.