Becoming Chartered by the Institute
Chartered Physicist (CPhys)
The title Chartered Physicist is exclusive to the Institute of Physics. It stands for the highest standards of professionalism, up-to-date expertise, quality and safety, and for capacity to undertake independent practice and exercise leadership. As well as competence, the title denotes commitment to keep pace with advancing knowledge and with the increasing expectations and requirements for which any profession must take responsibility.
Chartered status is the aspiration of members engaged at the leading edge of all fields of physics and its applications.
Navigate to the information you require below or on the right:
- Application templates for download
- Guidance on supporters
- How long will the application take to process?
- Recent changes to CPhys summarised.
- How mentoring can help to develop your career
- Is your degree accredited?
- Why become chartered?
- Which chartered status is right for me?
- How do I record my career development?
- Other frequently asked questions
- Contact the Membership Department
Application templates for download
The Institute requires all CPhys candidates to use this Professional Review Report Template and MPhys equivalence template (where applicable). Candidates not wishing to use Microsoft Word to write their report should use the same section headings and include all the information requested. Reports not in this format will be returned to the candidate for rewriting. There will be no exceptions to this rule.
Professional Review Report Template (MS Word document)
MPhys Equivalence Template (editable PDF document to be submitted electronically)
Guidance on supporters
It is mandatory that at least one supporter must be a chartered physicist. This document gives guidance on choosing your supporters
All applicants are advised to search amongst their network of contacts and/or to attend local Group and Branch meetings in order to nurture suitable relationships. You could also find yourself a mentor, who, over time, may get to know you well enough to be able to provide support - we provide a mentor/mentee matching service to help with this. If you genuinely can not locate a Chartered Physicist in your network the Professional Development team can nominate a supporter for you. However, this option is always closely scrutinised and queried by the assessing panel.
One supporter must be from an organisation other than your own. This is to ensure independence of opinion. You must not be related to either of your supporters.
How long will the application take to process?
Receipt of your application will be acknowledged within three weeks by the Institute's Membership Department. Your supporters will be written to within another two weeks and asked to respond within a month. As long as your supporters' comments are received back within this time period, the assessment of the application can begin. This stage can take up to six weeks. You will then be notified of the Institute's decision.
Recent changes to CPhys summarised
On 1 January 2007 the way of demonstrating that you have the breadth and depth of physics knowledge and professional competence required for a Chartered Physicist changed.
It is now six years since the separation of CPhys from MInstP (they used to be automatically awarded at the same time) there has been a shift towards raising the standard of CPhys. Over this period of time the emphasis on an accredited education has increased, as has the requirement to have a structured period of initial professional development followed by a thorough experience of responsibility. The 2007 changes reflect this emphasis.
The new guidelines can be found here .
Is your degree accredited?
Have a look at our register of accredited courses and find out whether your degree is accredited or not. Degrees that are more than ten years old do not currently need to be accredited.
Professional Standards Procedures
Click here to access the procedures for the professional standards activities. These include interview proformas and guidance for interviewers and panel members.
Please e-mail cpd@iop.org or call 020 7470 4800 for further guidance or to talk to somebody about getting chartered.
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