RICS has entered into a partnership with the University of Leicester, UK. To mark this, Dr Rob Tovey, RICS Director of Education and Training, awarded a certificate to the University's Vice-Chancellor, Professor Robert Burgess, at a presentation at the university on 14 August 2006.

The partnership is being launched with accreditation of the MSc in Geographic Information Systems. The aim is to extend it to cover other courses within RICS' area of interest in land, property and the environment.

Leicester has been recognised as a UK centre of excellence in Geomatics with the establishment of a HEFCE-funded Centre of Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) for the Spatial Literacy in Teaching (SPLINT), worth £3.9m. Leicester is leading this centre in collaboration with the University of Nottingham and University College London, which are also RICS partners.

Leicester achieved joint first position in the 2005 National Student Survey on teaching quality and overall satisfaction. It has also just joined the 1994 Group of research-intensive universities.

Rob Tovey commented: 'RICS welcomes entering into partnership with Leicester. We will work closely with the university to promote RICS membership to students and to support the MSc in Geographic Information Systems, as well as identifying other areas of co-operation.'