Professional Review Guidance Mar 2019
Professional Review Guidance Mar 2019
Professional Review Guidance Mar 2019
Guidance
The Professional Review is the final step in becoming an ICE Member (MICE) – at Incorporated
(IEng) or Chartered Engineer (CEng) level.
To sit a Professional Review, you must hold the appropriate qualifications (educational base), and
have completed your initial professional development (IPD).
The Professional Review is an opportunity to demonstrate you have the level of ability, experience,
knowledge and personal development that is required to become a member of ICE.
You’ll be assessed by your peer reviewers against the attributes that apply to the grade of
membership you’ve applied for. The attributes are listed in Appendix A.
▪ Application
▪ Professional Review submission
▪ Professional Review day –
o Presentation
o Interview
o Written exercise
This document provides detailed guidance for all steps of the process.
If you have any queries about the process, please contact the Professional Reviews team on +44
(0)207 665 2344.
You can specify where you would like your Professional Review to take place on your application
form – please see the key dates page on our website for review centre locations and application
deadlines. While ICE will do its best to accommodate your first option, in some instances this may
not be possible due to over demand for one centre, and you will be allocated your second centre
option. We ask that you do not book any travel or accommodation until you have received your
notification letter.
While face to face Professional Reviews remain the preferred approach, ICE can now offer remote
Professional Reviews, via video conference, for international candidates:
▪ Whose specialism does not match any of the available reviewers at that location
▪ An application form
▪ Review fee (non-refundable)
▪ Sponsor questionnaires (sent separately by the sponsors – see below for more details)
▪ Evidence that you have the required qualifications – if not a current member
▪ Evidence of initial professional development (IPD) completion at the grade for which you are
applying, which can be –
o ICE Training Agreement completion certificate
o ICE mentor-supported training completion certificate
o Career Appraisal or Member Assessment decision letter confirming you can proceed
to Professional Review
o Training Scheme A completion certificate in the civil discipline or in the geotechnical
discipline with the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers (HKIE), followed by 12 months
post completion experience, for those who commence a HKIE scheme A after 1st
January 2017.
Your application must have three sponsors, who can confirm your suitability for membership. To do
so, they must fill out a sponsor questionnaire and return it to us before you send your initial
application.
It’s important you also read the questionnaire as it provides guidance on who is eligible to sponsor
your application and what they are required to demonstrate.
You need to select one sponsor to be your lead sponsor. This person has additional responsibilities
and plays a particularly important role in the success of your application.
▪ Must be an ICE Member and registered with the Engineering Council at the same grade or
higher than the one you are applying for
▪ Has a duty to act as a mentor during the Professional Review submission process
▪ Should be familiar with the current ICE Professional Review process and the standards you
are required to meet
Your lead sponsor could, for example, provide constructive criticism of your report, advice on the
presentation and arrange practice interviews. We recommend that your lead sponsor is someone
who was involved in your IPD process – your supervising civil engineer (SCE), for example.
No person with an unspent conviction relating to a Serious Criminal Offence* will be admitted to any
grade of membership unless there are special circumstances that show beyond reasonable doubt
that the person is a fit and proper person to be admitted to membership of the Institution.
If you have an unspent conviction relating to a serious criminal offence, please complete the
criminal convictions form which must also be signed by your sponsors, and submitted with your
application, a member of staff will contact you directly and in confidence.
*“Serious Criminal Offence” means an offence involving dishonesty or deception or any offence
punishable by a Court of competent jurisdiction by a term of imprisonment of 12 months or more
(whether or not any custodial sentence is in fact imposed).
All documents (except the sponsor questionnaires) should be included – in the order noted above –
within a single PDF file of no more than 5mb and emailed to professional.reviews@ice.org.uk. You
will receive an automated acknowledgement email from ICE, if you do not please call us on +44 (0)
207 665 2344.
After submitting your initial application, ICE will check it for completeness and contact you to
acknowledge receipt and, if necessary, request any missing documents.
You will be emailed the names of your reviewers, as well as full details of the time, date and venue
of your Professional Review approximately four weeks before the Review. Under no
circumstances should you contact your reviewers directly.
Conflict of interest
Your reviewers should not be connected to either you or your employer. If you know one of your
reviewers or feel there may be a conflict of interest, you should let us know immediately on +44 (0)
207 665 2344 or at professional.reviews@ice.org.uk
Your reviewers will also have been given the opportunity to identify any conflicts prior to you being
notified of who they are.
This step of the process involves sending your detailed submission to ICE.
▪ A cover page/contents
▪ The Professional Review report, including –
o A two-page CV
o Appendices
▪ CPD records
You can find details on how to format and send us these documents at the end of this section.
You should send your submission to professional.reviews@ice.org.uk at least 15 full working days
before your Professional Review date. If you miss the deadline or your submission is incomplete
your Professional Review may be deferred.
The report
For the direct route to Member Professional Review (MPR) or Chartered Professional Review
(CPR), your report should be up to 5,000 words long. It should be your own work and presented in
an ordered manner.
It’s essential that you emphasise your responsibilities and experience for each attribute. You should
expand on decisions you made, problems you met, and occasions when you gained unusual or
extensive experience and learned valuable lessons.
The report should put particular emphasis on one or two projects in which you played a major part. If
you’re applying for membership at Chartered Engineer (CEng) level, you should also describe how
you took a lead in some or all of the elements of the project/s.
You must clearly indicate your role in any relevant aspects of the projects you have worked on by
giving the background to the important decisions you were responsible for, or made a significant
CV
Your report should include a brief, two-page CV, which gives an indication of the size and financial
value of projects undertaken and your role and responsibilities in each project. This will not be
included within the 5,000 word limit.
Appendices
Numerical analyses, cost data, drawings or other relevant additional documentation should be
included as appendices to support the content of your report. They are not included in the word
count.
▪ Three A3 drawings
▪ Twelve A4 sides of additional information, including any relevant calculations
Exceeding this may result in your reviewers declining your submission.
▪ A development action plan (DAP) which details your objectives for the current/forthcoming
year
▪ Your personal development record (PDR) going back a minimum of three years from the
current date (with a minimum of 30 hours of effective learning per year)
If making an application for MPR you are required to complete a minimum of 90 hours effective
learning before applying. For CPR and CPRP you are required to complete a minimum of 180
hours before applying. If applying for CPRP your CPD records may include those you included in
your MPR submission. For more information, please read our CPD guidance.
Supported Training or Career Appraisal. If you don’t have a membership please register with MyICE to obtain one
Admission Procedure 3
Your name will be published on the ICE website for a minimum of 28 days in accordance with
Admission Procedure 3.
▪ A presentation
▪ An interview
▪ A written exercise
Presentation
Your Professional Review interview will begin with a 15-minute presentation to your reviewers based
on a topic, or topics, covered in your Professional Review report. You should provide an in-depth
description of what you have done, that expands on your report and highlights your involvement.
You are encouraged to use visual aids to illustrate your presentation, but they should be no larger
than A3. You are permitted to use a laptop computer, but external power supplies will not be
provided.
Interview
You will then be interviewed by your reviewers, who will seek to confirm you have achieved the
required level of competence, as stated in your report. The presentation and interview will last a
maximum of one hour for MPR/CPRP and 75 minutes for CPR.
If you haven’t demonstrated sufficient evidence of a particular attribute in your report, your reviewers
will pose specific questions to try to draw out your knowledge and experience in that area.
All mobile devices must be switched off prior to the start of the interview. The recording of the
interview is prohibited.
Written exercise
You will be set two questions by your reviewers and you must answer one in the allotted two hours.
Questions will be based on subjects that relate to your experience, but you will still need to prepare
for the written exercise by studying and gaining industry-related knowledge.
▪ At MPR, the objective is to ascertain that you can produce straightforward documents
without assistance from others
We will let you know when your result will be emailed to you. Providing you select the tick-box on the
application form, your name, if successful, will be published on ICE’s website five days later and will
subsequently appear on the ‘New Civil Engineer’ website.
If you are unsuccessful at your Professional Review you will be given the reasons why.
Appeals
Candidates have the right to appeal where they feel there was an error in the process, and in cases
of unforeseen events. Appeals must be received within two months of the date of your result letter.
If you plan to appeal, we recommend that you read our appeals guidance and contact your contact
your Membership Recruitment Team as listed below:
▪ If you are based in the UK, please email membershiprecruitment@ice.org.uk or call +44
(0)121 237 3648 / 3649 for help.
▪ If you are based in Hong Kong, please email membership@icehk.org.hk for help.
▪ If you are based anywhere else please email iceinternational@ice.org.uk or call +44 (0) 207
665 2006 for help.
You should therefore prepare in the same way you did for your original Professional Review.
At any Professional Review you must have had responsible and relevant experience at a
level such that you can demonstrate the attributes shown in the table below.
The interpretation of Attributes 1 and 2 will relate to your fields of work as indicated to the
reviewers on your application form. You must demonstrate a sound understanding of core
engineering principles in those fields, particularly if you do not hold the educational
requirement necessary for Engineering Council registration. The reviewers will judge your
level of attainment of Attributes 3 to 9 with regard to their relative importance within your
fields of work.
As a prospective professional civil engineer, in order to fulfil your obligation to society and
to meet the requirements of Health, Safety and Welfare legislation, you must have a sound
knowledge and understanding of the construction process (1) together with the activities
connected to it. You must have an appreciation of, and be able to identify and manage,
risks to all those engaged and affected by the design, construction, operation, use,
maintenance and demolition of any works. For those whose experience includes the
construction process, site experience will ordinarily be required.
Notes:
(1) The construction process is held to include the conception, design, construction,
commissioning, maintenance, decommissioning, removal, management and
procurement of civil engineering works.
(2) All Professional Reviews for Engineering Council registration will be conducted in
English, subject only to the Welsh Language Act 1993 and any regulations which may
be made in implementation of European Union Directives on free movement of labour.
1 Ensure that you are using the current version of this guidance document.
2 Check attributes required for the grade of membership for which you are applying and
against which you will be assessed (Appendix A).
5 Obtain lead sponsor and further sponsors as required for the applicable grade of
membership.
9 Prepare report.
11 Review report with lead sponsor to verify achievement of attributes. Ensure report is
signed by the lead sponsor.
12 Plan mock review (presentation, interview and written exercise) with your mentor or lead
sponsor
1 The following documentation should be submitted in a single PDF file of no more than
5mb to the Professional Reviews office by email to professional.reviews@ice.org.uk:
▪ Completed Professional Review application form
▪ Evidence of academic qualifications (unless already approved or not relevant to
application)
▪ Evidence of Initial Professional Development (IPD) completion, which will be
one of the following –
o ICE Training Agreement completion certificate
o ICE mentor-supported training completion certificate
o Career Appraisal or Member Assessment decision letter confirming you can
proceed to Professional Review
o Training Scheme A completion certificate in the civil discipline or in the
geotechnical discipline with the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers (HKIE),
followed by 12 months post completion experience, for those who commence a
HKIE scheme A after 1 January 2017.
Sponsors
Ensure that all your sponsors have been submitted directly to the ICE prior to submitting
your application
1 A copy of your Professional Review submission in the format outlined on page 8 should
be submitted to professional.reviews@ice.org.uk at least 15 full working days before
your Professional Review date:
▪ A cover page/contents
▪ The Professional Review report – inclusive of your CV
▪ Appendices
▪ CPD records
2 Prepare presentation and visual aids to expand on your report.
3 Plan journey time to arrive at least 30 minutes before the interview time.
4 Ensure your laptop computer is fully charged if using this option for your
presentation
You need to tell us about these requirements in the space provided in your Professional Review
application form. We’ll also need to see any evidence, like certified documents or statements.
If your submission is affected by security issues, you should consider the following suggestions:
▪ Make your report non-site specific – for example don’t state that the facility was on the
Sellafield site or on the Hinkley site or that the asset serves a critical function to the site
or country, or is or was vulnerable to various threats
▪ Don’t state building numbers or names – it’s sufficient to say ‘nuclear facility’ or ‘nuclear
store’
▪ Remove site and building names from drawings or snapshots of models
▪ Don’t include photographs or other images which reveal the location of buildings and
facilities
▪ Avoid stating, or showing in drawings or extracts from models, technical details (such
as wall thickness) which may reveal security-sensitive information
Familiarise yourself with the Engineering Council’s guidance note on Security (published May 2016).
You should also let us know if you believe your reviewers need security clearance.
This is a two-hour test of your ability to communicate in written English. Your reviewers will draft two
questions and you must answer one.
The questions will be unique to you, based on your areas of experience, and appropriate to your
level of work-based knowledge and responsibility. However, you’ll still need an appreciation of broad
industry and society-related topics, which you should try to gain through your experience at work,
general reading, CPD study and discussions with colleagues.
Below, you’ll find a list of potential question topics within broad subject areas. However, this list is
not exhaustive and you may be given a question from a different area, relative to your experience.
You’re expected to show you can develop ideas and support them with reasoned opinion. Your
answer should follow a logical structure, either as an essay or report. It does not have to be a
polished article, but consistent with a ‘first draft’.
For Reviews taking place after 1 July 2018 the written exercise will be under closed book exam
conditions, although you will be allowed to bring in 2 sides of A4 (hard copy) as reference material.
You are advised to prepare a plan for your written exercise although this will not be marked. A plan
will help you formulate a coherent argument, and can help your reviewers to see your thought
process.
Discussion groups
Organised discussion groups can help develop your writing skills and encourage debates between
engineers. Your Membership Recruitment Team (in the UK and Hong Kong) or regional
representative (in other parts of the world) can give you more information about discussion groups.
▪ If you are based in the UK, please email membershiprecruitment@ice.org.uk or call +44
(0)121 237 3648 / 3649.
▪ If you are based in Hong Kong, please email membership@icehk.org.hk.
▪ If you are based anywhere else, please email iceinternational@ice.org.uk or call +44 (0)207
665 2006.
▪ The use of the internet on any mobile device or computer is not permitted during the written
exercise
▪ There will be an invigilator/s present throughout the written exercise
▪ You will be asked at the start of the written exercise to put all mobile devices on silent and
place them on the table in front of you.
▪ For Reviews taking place after 1 July 2018 you will only be allowed to bring in 2 sides of A4
(hard copy) as reference material, you will not be allowed to bring any other hard copy
reference material or access any other information.
▪ We won’t be able to help if you experience technical problems with your own equipment. If
there’s a problem, you’ll be given a maximum of 60 additional minutes to complete the
Plagiarism
Plagiarism is presenting the work of others as your own. This means using words or ideas, for
example, without the permission of the original author or authors, and without acknowledgement of
the original author. Plagiarism should be avoided in all elements of your Professional Review,
including your report, drawings, presentation and the written exercise.
Plagiarism is taken seriously by the ICE and samples of both the professional review report and the
written exercise response will be selected from each Review centre and put through the plagiarism
detection software.
In addition, should the invigilator have concerns with your behaviour during the written exercise or
your reviewers raise concerns with the content of your written exercise your response will
automatically be put through the plagiarism detection software. If this shows significant levels of
similarity with any unattributed sources you will be contacted by the ICE and asked to provide an
explanation. Your reviewers will be provided with a copy of the plagiarism report and your response.
Your reviewers may use this information in the assessment of your written exercise or other
attributes
Collusion
In the context of the Professional Review, collusion is any agreement to conceal someone else’s
contribution to your piece of work. The guidance above equally applies to avoiding collusion.
Plagiarism and collusion may lead to a ban on applying for membership or, for existing members,
permanent expulsion as an ICE member.
If an allegation of plagiarism or collusion is made relating to your application for membership, your
result may be delayed until an investigation has taken place.
Financial
Management
▪ Re-thinking construction
▪ Quality, health, safety welfare, and environmental management systems
▪ Effective delegation
▪ Team leadership
▪ Communication during the design and construction of civil engineering works
▪ Training/development of staff
▪ Partnering/alliances
▪ Business improvement
▪ Marketing
▪ Site/project management
Societal
Commercial
Technical/academic
▪ Have a specialist area of work which does not match the expertise of any of ICE’s local
reviewers
ICE will make every effort to allow candidates to sit their Professional Review face to face and,
where possible, will send reviewers to interview candidates in person. However, in countries where
there are very small numbers of candidates wishing to sit their Professional Review, this may not be
feasible.
There is no difference in the Professional Review requirements. Your reviewers will be seeking to
confirm that the evidence of competence, which you have provided, is supported by your responses
to their questioning and meets the requirements of the Attributes.
You can access the ICE video conference via another company’s video conference room system or,
where you do not have access to such a facility, via a laptop or desktop computer.
You must make sure that you will have undisturbed use of a meeting room within a place of work for
the entire duration of the remote review.
There is no specific requirement with regard to the broadband speed; however, we ask that you sit
the remote review in a place work with access to a reliable internet connection.
There will be a local administrator available throughout the day to help solve any problems.
If the problem can be rectified then the interview will proceed, with additional time being given for the
downtime which occurred. If the problem cannot be rectified then alternative arrangements will be
made for you to re-take your Professional Review.
If you wish to undertake a remote review you must email professional.reviews@ice.org.uk to submit
your request, stating which grade of membership you wish to apply for. You should include an
explanation of why you believe you are eligible for remote review.
Please let us know if you have access to a video conference room system or will be using a
laptop/desktop computer and provide us with the location where you intend to sit your remote
review. This must be a private room within a place of work, where you will not be interrupted for the
duration of the review.
You will receive a response from ICE to confirm whether or not you are eligible for a remote review
and, if you are, you will be given a deadline within which to submit your application. You will then be
required to follow the submission procedures outlined on page 4.
As remote reviews will often be carried out across different time zones, they will generally be held
outside of the usual Professional Review dates. The exact time and date of your remote review will
be decided after discussions between you, ICE staff, local administrators, and the reviewers.
If your request for a remote review is approved, ICE will provide more detailed instructions.
Further information
If you have any questions, please contact professional.reviews@ice.org.uk.