Ever wondered what happens to your APC submission after you submit it? Please see our guide to how we process and assess APC submissions, as well as issue results to candidates. It includes all the quality assurance checks carried out by the Membership team and our assessors to ensure we issue fair, accurate and timely results to candidates.
Everything you need to know about applying for Chartered membership is contained in the main guidance document on our website. There is one for each of the four routes to Chartered membership.
If you don’t know which route is most suitable for you, please contact the Membership team for advice.
Top tip
As well as the main guidance document for each route, there are also Advice Notes and other resources online which provide additional help and guidance.
The Membership team run a series of free of charge webinars, that cover each aspect of the APC process. They are either half an hour or a full hour and take place around lunchtime.
Places can be booked here.
There are four first time submission windows per year, in February, May, August and November. The exact submission date can be found on the How to Submit webpage.
If you are resubmitting there are four resubmission windows in January, April, July and October.
You must corroborate your submission. You may submit as many Corroborator Declaration Forms as necessary. Your sponsor has to be a Chartered member, but your corroborator(s) are not required to be. Your sponsor and corroborator could be the same person, but don’t have to be.
Top tip
Please use your mentor, corroborator(s) and sponsor for support as you finalize your submission.
The Membership team will carry out checks on your submission, to ensure that you have submitted everything that it required and it complies with the General Presentation requirements in the main guidance e.g., you are within the word limit range. There is more information about how to submit here.
If everything is complete on your submission, then the Membership Team will send you an email to confirm that is the case and it has been passed to the assessors to review. If there is an issue with your submission then the Membership Team will email to let you know and you will normally be given 24 hours to resolve the issue and resend the relevant details. Emails will be sent within two weeks of the submission deadline.
Top tip
It is the responsibility of the candidate, not the Membership team, to make sure your submission is ready to be passed to the assessors to review. If there are any issues with your submission, it might delay your assessment.
Two trained assessors receive your application.
All our assessors are required to complete mandatory annual training. There is also annual mid-year training and assessors receive ongoing support from the Membership Team. Assessors mark in line with requirements of the main guidance document for the route.
Did you know?
All assessors are Chartered members, they are experienced planners.
Two trained assessors review your submission independently from each other. This is key to ensuring fair and accurate results are issued.
Our assessors are paired together so that together they have a wide range of experiences, including different areas of planning specialisms, private and public sector experience, new assessors are paired with an experienced assessor, and they come from different geographical locations.
Did you know
All submissions are checked for plagiarism and use of AI.
The assessors will confer on the marking of your submission and agree on the assessment outcomes as well as the main points to bring out in the feedback form.
If the assessors can not agree an outcome, the submission will be passed to a third assessor to mark, the third assessor will work with the original assessor pair to agree an assessment outcome.
One assessor will write the feedback form and pass to the other to confirm they are happy with it before the feedback form is returned to the Membership team.
The APC process is quality assured by the Membership Assessment Advisory Panel (MAAP), who consist of a cross section of members, and they ensure the correct assessment process is followed and all candidates are treated fairly.
Top tip
Did you know? You will receive feedback from the assessors regardless of whether you are successful or deferred.
The Membership team check each of the feedback forms, making sure it is completed accurately, consistently and all comments are fair, justifiable and of a developmental nature to help you prepare in the event of a possible resubmission.
Once the feedback forms have been checked, the Membership team update our internal system with the assessment outcome and prepare the results day outcome emails.
Top tip
Did you know? All feedback forms are read by the Membership Team to check for consistency and accuracy.
On the published results day you will receive an outcome email and feedback form.
Result emails are sent throughout results day, so some candidates will receive their results before others, this is unavoidable. Please don’t read anything into if you receive your results early in the morning or later on in the day.
Congratulations if you are successful and become Chartered or Associate!
Check out all the member benefits and services we offer.
Congratulations, if you are successful, you may wish to share the good news on social media. You may also wish to thank your Sponsor, Corroborator(s) and mentor, who helped and supported you through the APC process.
That is a great achievement, you should be really proud of yourself. You can now use the letters MRTPI after your name and the RTPI logo on your website, if you run your own business.
Top tip
Don’t forget to tag RTPI in your celebratory social media posts.
Use the hashtag #APC.
If you were not successful first-time, do not give up. This is not a rejection, it is a deferral from the assessors for more information. Please use the comments from the assessors in the feedback form and the main guidance document to help you prepare your resubmission.
We see the first-time resubmission as an extension of your first-time submission and it is your opportunity to provide the assessors with some more information, context, background, clarity and really make sure you adapt your work experience to meet the requirement of the competencies.
Please don’t give up, we understand the time and emotional investment candidates make when preparing their first-time submission.
Top tip
If you are unsuccessful, you can introduce a new case study when you resubmit, if you wish, but it must be corroborated.
After you have resubmitted for the first-time, if you are still not successful and you feel your submission has not been assessed in line with the guidance, you can appeal against the assessment outcome.
More information about the APC member appeal procedure can be found here.