In this guide
Use this material to examine your own work. Confirm current requirements, forms and dates with IStructE before applying.
IStructE's Professional Review includes a Professional Review Interview and an examination. You must satisfy both before election to membership; each assesses a different aspect of your competence.
The two parts do different work
This is the thing most worth understanding early, because candidates routinely prepare for one and assume it covers the other.
The Professional Review Interview looks backwards at what you have done. Two reviewers read your portfolio and your report forms, and question you until they are satisfied that you have reached the minimum standard in each of the ten Core Objectives. It is about your evidence, your responsibility and your judgement on real projects.
The examination looks at what you can do, on the day, alone, with a brief you have never seen. It is a scheme-design test: read a brief, produce viable structural solutions, appraise them, communicate a recommendation, calculate, draw, and set out how it would be built.
You can be strong at one and weak at the other. Passing one tells you nothing about the other, and neither is a substitute for the other.
What has to be satisfied
- 01
An academic base
The qualifications behind you have to meet the requirement for the grade you are seeking. Where they do not, there are assessment and alternative routes, and all of them take months, so this is the part to resolve first.
- 02
Initial Professional Development
The progressive development of the knowledge and skills needed to practise as a structural engineer, evidenced against ten Core Objectives to defined minimum standards. There are three routes for demonstrating it.
- 03
A portfolio and IPD final report forms
A single PDF of no more than 300 pages, sub-divided by Core Objective, plus a two-page experience report and a final report form for each objective.
- 04
The Professional Review Interview
Two reviewers, remotely, for 60 to 90 minutes, opening with a presentation of about ten minutes and no more than ten slides.
- 05
The examination
A seven-hour scheme-design paper, open book, with reading time before it starts. The format differs between the Chartered, Incorporated and supplementary examinations.
- 06
Election, and registration
Satisfying both parts makes you eligible for election to membership. Engineering Council registration as CEng or IEng follows where the academic and competence requirements are met.
Questions to ask yourself
- Has IStructE confirmed that my qualifications meet the requirement for the grade I want?
Not "do I have a degree": has the Institution accepted it. Resolving a shortfall takes months, and every other plan depends on it.
- Can I name evidence against all ten Core Objectives?
All ten are assessed, and it is your job at the interview to demonstrate each one. A gap found now is a development plan; a gap found at interview is a re-interview.
- Could I produce two distinct schemes for an unfamiliar brief, in a day?
That is the examination. It is a different skill from evidencing your career, and it needs its own practice.
- Do I have a supporter, and a mentor?
A supporter confirms you are a fit and proper person; a mentor helps you get there. They are different roles and you may need both.
Official sources
Selected publisher pages were rechecked in September 2026. Other source records were last checked in July 2026. Open the latest official document before relying on a requirement.