Membership criteria
and supporting documentation
General membership requirements
- You will be admitted to the appropriate grade of membership based on a combination of your horticultural qualifications and/or experience.
- You do not need to have formal academic qualifications in horticulture in order to be admitted to membership of the Chartered Institute of Horticulture.
- Your relevant voluntary experience, and/or placements you undertook while studying, may count towards your work experience.
- Your application will be assessed based on the information you supply.
- Upon successful completion of your application into membership your details will automatically be included in our membership directory, unless you opt out at the time of your application. The directory will then be distributed to all CIH members for networking purposes.
All members must be:
- working (paid or unpaid), in horticulture or
- studying wholly or largely horticulture, or
- in a branch of science or arts directly linked with horticulture
Horticulture is defined in its widest sense, to include:
- amenity horticulture, parks, landscaping, botanic/heritage gardens, and the full range of horticulture within leisure industries
- producing, managing, growing and marketing all edible and decorative horticultural crops
- allied research, education and consultancy
- associated supply industries
Academic qualifications and experience requirements
- Student: No units required. You will be currently studying for an academic qualification that will enable you to qualify to be an Affiliate, Associate or Member.
- Associate (ACIHort): 5 – 11 units from a combination of the academic and/or work experience given below
- Member (MCIHort): 12 or more units from a combination of the academic and/or work experience given below
- Fellow (FCIHort): a Member can be nominated for Fellowship by other Fellows of the Insitute, dependant on experience and individual achievements.
Units awarded for work experience
- You will be awarded one unit for each year of relevant work experience at appropriate level. Note that half units will be awarded for periods of six months relevant work experience at appropriate level.
- Your work experience may be paid or voluntary.
- Relevant placements you have undertaken while studying may also count towards your work experience.
- Note that only one work/placement will be counted during any given period of time, i.e. if you have a paid job and are also undertaking a study-related placement at the same time, only one of these will be counted towards your work experience total.
Units awarded for academic criteria
- These are not cumulative, i.e. only the units awarded for the highest qualification will be counted.
- Equivalent qualifications to those stated will be accepted. The OFQUAL Register of Regulated Qualifications will be used to check equivalences.
- The maximum number of units that will be credited for academic achievement is 10.
Relevant qualifications in a field related to horticulture
- PhD: 10 units
- Masters: 9 units
- Bachelors Degree (Hons): 8 units
- Bachelors Degree/Botanic Garden Diploma/RHS Masters: 7 units
- HND/Foundation Degree: 6 units
- HNC/Level 4: 5 units
- Level 3 e.g. NDH, RHS Diploma/Advanced Certificate, Edexcel NCH: 4 units
- Level 2 e.g. City & Guilds NCH/RHS Certificate: 3 units
Non-relevant qualifications in a field not related to horticulture
- PhD: 5 units
- Masters: 4 units
- Bachelors Degree (Hons): 3.5 units
- Bachelors Degree: 3 units
- HND/Foundation Degree: 2.5 units
- HNC: 2 units
Supporting documentation
Terms of Membership
A person’s membership will be renewed annually and automatically, unless the Chartered Institute of Horticulture receives other instruction from the person holding the membership. If a person does not pay their subscription fee within one month of their renewal date the Chartered Institute of Horticulture will lapse your membership without warning. If you wish to reinstate your membership within 6 months of your renewal date, you will need to pay a processing fee of £15. Extenuating circumstances may be taken into account.
Continuation of a person’s membership is subject to adherence to the Chartered Institute of Horticulture’s Code of Professional Conduct. If a person does not adhere to this code they may enter disciplinary proceedings, or have their membership removed entirely, depending on the gravity of the breach.
If a person’s membership has been cancelled, they must immediately remove all reference to the Institute from any professional or non-professional documentation and communication, and must immediately cease using the Institute’s post-nominal letters (ACIHort, MCIHort, FCIHort, CHort). Failure to do so may result in further action.
Chartered Member Competencies
Application Process
Applicants must complete and submit to the Institute an application form available from the CIH website.
This will need to be validated by two witnesses. The application form should not be longer than 4000 words. You should submit to the Institute a long-form curriculum vitae (CV) cross-referenced to the four (4) key competencies and their subsets as detailed below. This CV should list your career and outline examples of your work; responsibilities and projects you have undertaken. A recommended structure is to describe and discuss your role in tasks and projects you have completed and show how these have fulfilled the four (4) competencies and their subsets (detailed below). The Application and Professional Information Form (core competencies) should provide evidence of your ability to work at Masters Level * capability.
*See Annex II for Explanation of Masters Level Competencies
Additional information can also be found here
Annex II Explanation of Master Level Competencies
Masters level capability is not necessarily about holding a Masters Level qualification. Candidates need to demonstrate that their knowledge and experience gained from a professional environment, are equivalent to Masters level competencies.
The criteria for judging Masters level are derived from the Qualifications and Credit Framework (QCF). The descriptors used in this framework may help Chartership candidates to map their own experiential learning against outcomes. It is important to note that the QCF is not intended to be used as a “tick box” assessment form but is for guidance only. Some words that summarise ‘M-levelness’ are currency of knowledge, critical analysis, problem solving, working with complexity and uncertainty, autonomy, initiate and leading. Candidates experience should show some of the following:
Qualifications and Credit Framework
