Qualifications and Assessment Committee
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Accountable to RICS’ Standards and Regulation Board (SRB), the Qualifications and Assessment Committee (QAC) will lead in the policy development and quality assurance of RICS’ qualifications, including entry and assessment to the profession.
Led by a professional member Chair, Keith Thomas FRICS, the QAC shares a commitment to the continuous improvement of RICS’ professional qualifications, and to enhancing the relevance and consistency of standards
Chair
Keith Thomas FRICS
Keith is a Chartered Development Surveyor (FRICS), Chartered Town Planner (FRTPI) and member of the Royal Geographical Society (FRGS) with nearly 40 years professional experience. He has run his own independent consultancy practice PER Consulting, for the past ten years working largely with central and local government clients on strategic planning, regeneration, and economic growth delivery. Before that he held senior leadership roles at property consultancy firms including Chesteron International, DTZ and AECOM. He is an experienced APC Assessor, panel Chair, mentor and counsellor for candidates entering the RICS and believes passionately in the need to widen routes of entry to the profession and the vital importance of candidate support networks. He brings further experience of the RTPI APC process and previously chaired the institute’s Membership and Advisory Panel, setting the standards for assessment and overseeing guidance on new routes to membership. Keith also acted as an Academic Partnership member, was a Director of Planning Aid Wales and served as a trustee of the International Ethics Coalition
Professional Members of the Committee
Laura Collins MRICS
Laura is a Project Director for projects in design, pre development and delivery. As well as being an active member of the RICS since achieving Chartered status in 2011, Laura has been awarded the accolades of RICS Young Surveyor of the Year, UCEM Alumni of the Year and WICE Quantity Surveyor of the Year. Laura is keen to contribute to the development of the construction industry’s next generation. She is an active member of the RICS Women of the Future working group and is a mentor to many in the industry, being recognised as UK Construction Week’s Role Model Class of 2019 and University College of Estate Management’s Associate Fellowship programme. Since joining Stanhope in 2019, Laura has been contributing to analysis of project cost data as well as being part of the delivery team of Warwick Court by Mitsubishi Estates Limited. Laura is also an RICS APC Assessor, Mentor for the Mentoring Circle and strategizing Stanhope’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion policy.
Roy Albert MRICS
Roy is currently employed as a Lead Surveyor at the Valuation Office Agency as part of the Wales and West team where he joined the Check, Challenge team in 2020 post qualification and his role focuses on Check, Challenge Appeal on non-domestic rates. The Non-domestic Rating (NDR) Directorate is responsible for NDR functions. The directorate also develops and implements strategy and policy across all aspects of NDR and is responsible for the maintenance of the rating list and the development of its use. It also drives quality and consistency through improved processes and supports local billing authorities that collect NDR rates. Roy joined the Valuation Office Agency in 2009 as part of an amalgamation of what was The Rent Service. His main role at The Rent Service was to make a series of valuations called ‘determinations’ to provide the Local Authority Housing Benefit department with a rent valuation to enable them to set a tenant’s benefit. He also provided Fair Rent valuations for regulated tenancies. He was part of the first cohort to become qualified in May 2020 via the online assessment and the first one to be qualified through the apprenticeship scheme at the Valuation Office Agency. Since his qualification in 2020, Roy has set out an objective to become an integral part of the RICS and the built environment beyond his current role at the VOA. In doing so he is now an APC assessor, an ambassador for the LionHeart Charity, a consultant for Property Elite and an active admin for the Surveyors Hub via Facebook and takes a significant interest as a supervisor to APC candidates within the VOA.
Ivy Lam FRICS
Ivy is a chartered quantity surveyor specialized in quantum expert witness works. Her areas of expertise cover contract administration, claims management, disruption analysis, expert witness work and quantity surveying work across Hong Kong and the United Arab Emirates for the mega scale multi-disciplinary civil infrastructure construction projects. Ivy is also a visiting lecturer at university in Hong Kong; a presenter at seminars in both UK and Hong Kong professional institutions; a practising general mediator and construction adjudicator. In RICS, She is the APC chairperson and has regularly delivered workshops to APC candidates in relation to the final assessment.
Paul Batchelor FRICS
Paul is a Chartered Building Surveyor and a Partner at Rider Levett Bucknall, based in their Yorkshire and Humber Region where he heads the Capital Projects Team. Paul’s specialism is in Later Living where he leads the RLB National team in the delivery of Retirement Living, Care Home and Extra Care developments, being proactive in shaping the sub-sector and having a hands-on role in the delivery of projects. Paul is also Chair of the RLB Future Professionals Forum, the body responsible for guiding the training and development of colleagues wishing to obtain Chartered status – pulling on Paul’s experience with the RICS APC process. Chartered in 1996 and obtaining Fellowship in 2019, Paul has been an RICS APC Assessor since 2007 and latterly an APC Chair. Training and development of future professionals is a passion of Paul’s, which saw him awarded Mentor of the Year at the G4C Awards in 2019 and shortlisted for Mentor of the Year in the RICS Matrics Awards of the same year. Away from work Paul continues this theme, holding the position of Chair of Governors of a Federated Governing Body of two Primary Schools and Chair of Governance committee.
Independent Members of the Committee
Joseph Oakley
Joseph is a senior educationalist with a special interest in clinical assessment. He is currently Head of Assessment & Credentialing at the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) where he leads on the development and assessment of national curricula and standards for registered pharmacists across the UK. He has considerable experience of implementing modern, evidence-based approaches to assessment design, governance, and quality assurance and has presented on these areas at international clinical education conferences. Joseph also has a particular interest in incorporating principles of equality, diversity and inclusion into post-graduate curricula and assessment design. Previously, Joseph has held senior education roles across a number of royal colleges and professional leadership bodies where he has led on the strategic development and delivery of national standards and large-scale international assessment programmes. Having started his career in school-level education, Joseph continues to work as a senior GCSE examiner and moderator for a large national examinations body as well as acting as the Chair of Standards and Vice Chair of Governors at a secondary school in Tower Hamlets.
Neil Atkinson MRICS
Neil spent over 20 years at Procter & Gamble one of the world’s most innovative companies. At P&G he led the development and commercialisation of new technologies that underpinned the business success of many well known consumer brands and at global scale. Holding a number of senior R&D and Regulatory roles Neil held direct responsibilities for several global teams. He has lived in Germany, Belgium and UK. Neil then moved into the professional body sector first to oversee significant growth of the international membership of IChemE underpinned by a strengthened portfolio of professional qualifications, educational initiatives and corporate partnerships. Most recently, as Chief Executive, Neil ran the Institution of Gas Engineers & Managers as it successfully pivoted to support the Net Zero decarbonisation agenda. Neil is a Fellow of the Institution of Chemical Engineers and an Honorary Fellow of the Society for the Environment. He is widely respected across the international engineering profession.
Lynne Livesey
Lynne has over 25 years’ experience of professional regulation, higher education, quality assurance and enhancement across educational disciplines and in legal professional and academic education. She has successfully led strategic developments and transformational change projects in her senior executive roles in university education and has significant experience as a member and chair of a number of charitable boards in the sphere of education, apprenticeships and training. On behalf of universities and professional bodies Lynne has been involved in reviewing quality of higher education in more than 30 international institutions and at many UK universities and colleges. She has participated in national working groups to review and enhance education and policy. As a qualified solicitor, she has a keen professional and personal interest in education law, equality diversity and inclusion and in social issues around widening participation, social mobility and access to justice.
