The Professional Regulation Commission regulates 46 professions. Each one has its own Professional Regulatory Board, and each board administers one licensure examination. If your field does not appear on that list, there is no PRC board exam for it, no matter how technical the work is.
That single fact answers most of the question. The rest of this guide covers the full register, why PRC's annual calendar carries roughly twice as many entries as there are boards, who decides which degree qualifies you, and the licensed careers that are not PRC exams at all.
For the separate question of how a board exam changes the cost and length of a career, see our comparison of courses with board exams versus courses without.
The full register of PRC-regulated professions
These are the 46 Professional Regulatory Boards exactly as PRC names them. The grouping is ours, for readability.
Engineering, architecture and the built environment
| Board |
|---|
| Aeronautical Engineering |
| Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering |
| Chemical Engineering |
| Civil Engineering |
| Electrical Engineering |
| Electronics Engineering |
| Geodetic Engineering |
| Mechanical Engineering |
| Metallurgical Engineering |
| Mining Engineering |
| Naval Architecture |
| Sanitary Engineering |
| Master Plumbing |
| Architecture |
| Landscape Architecture |
| Interior Design |
| Environmental Planning |
Health and allied health
| Board |
|---|
| Dentistry |
| Medicine |
| Medical Technology |
| Midwifery |
| Nursing |
| Nutrition and Dietetics |
| Occupational Therapy |
| Optometry |
| Pharmacy |
| Physical Therapy |
| Radiologic Technology |
| Respiratory Therapy |
| Speech-Language Pathology |
| Veterinary Medicine |
Sciences, agriculture and natural resources
| Board |
|---|
| Agriculture |
| Chemistry |
| Fisheries |
| Food Technology |
| Foresters |
| Geology |
Business, education, social and other services
| Board |
|---|
| Accountancy |
| Criminology |
| Customs Brokers |
| Guidance and Counseling |
| Librarianship |
| Professional Teachers |
| Psychology |
| Real Estate Service |
| Social Workers |
Seventeen, fourteen, six and nine. Forty-six in total.
Why the exam calendar is longer than the board list
PRC issues the year's schedule of licensure examinations as a Commission resolution. The 2026 schedule was set by PRC Resolution No. 2113, series of 2025, and that document runs to 88 numbered examination entries. There are three reasons the number is so much higher than 46.
Some boards license more than one profession. The Board of Real Estate Service covers separate examinations for Real Estate Brokers, Real Estate Appraisers and Real Estate Consultants, with the consultants' exam conducted as a revalida. The Board of Electronics Engineering runs examinations for Electronics Engineers and for Electronics Technicians. The Board of Chemistry runs examinations for Chemists and for Chemical Technicians. The Board of Psychology runs examinations for Psychologists and for Psychometricians. The Board of Radiologic Technology runs examinations for Radiologic Technologists and for X-Ray Technologists.
Some exams are split into parts. Dentistry appears in the calendar as separate written and practical examinations. Dental Technologists likewise appear as a written examination and a practical one.
Most major exams run twice a year. Nurses, Professional Teachers, Criminologists, Civil Engineers, Mechanical Engineers, Physicians, Medical Technologists, Midwives, Pharmacists, Electronics Engineers and others each appear twice in the 2026 calendar.
The practical consequence: the qualifying degree, the exam name and the board name are three different things, and you should check all three on PRC's own materials rather than assuming they match.
Not every entry in that calendar sits at bachelor's level either. Examinations such as Certified Plant Mechanics, X-Ray Technologists, Dental Hygienists and Master Plumbers exist alongside the baccalaureate-level exams, and their qualifying education is set by their own governing laws.
Who decides which degree qualifies you
Not PRC, and not CHED. The law that created the profession's board. Those laws are specific, and they are the document to read before you enrol in anything on the promise of a licence.
Three verified examples:
- Nursing. Republic Act No. 9173 provides that an applicant for the nurse licensure examination must be a holder of a bachelor's degree in nursing from a college or university that complies with the standards of nursing education duly recognised by the proper government agency.
- Accountancy. Republic Act No. 9298 requires that the applicant be a holder of the degree of Bachelor of Science in Accountancy conferred by a school, college, academy or institute duly recognised or accredited by CHED.
- Criminology. Republic Act No. 11131 requires that the applicant hold a bachelor's degree in criminology duly accredited by CHED, or an equivalent foreign degree recognised by CHED.
The pattern holds across the register: a named degree, from a recognised institution. Which is why a "related" course is usually not enough, and why you should confirm the exact degree name in the governing law before choosing a program on the strength of a school's marketing.
Our program guides for BS Nursing, BS Accountancy and BS Criminology cover what those three curricula actually contain.
The passing rules are not the same either
Students routinely assume 75 per cent is the universal passing mark. The general average often is 75, but the conditions attached to it are set profession by profession.
| Profession | What the law requires |
|---|---|
| Nursing (RA 9173) | General average of at least 75 per cent, with no rating below 60 per cent in any subject |
| Accountancy (RA 9298) | General average of 75 per cent with no grade lower than 65 per cent; conditional credit for subjects passed, with two years to complete the rest |
| Criminology (RA 11131) | Applicants who fail five times must complete a refresher course before retaking |
On top of the individual laws, Republic Act No. 8981, the PRC Modernization Act of 2000, authorises the Commission to require completion of a refresher course where an examinee has failed to pass three times. Accountancy's own law is stricter still, making a candidate who fails two complete examinations ineligible until they present evidence of having completed at least 24 units of subjects given in the licensure examination.
Read your own profession's law. The differences are not trivia; they decide how many attempts you get before you are required to go back to school.
Licensed careers that are not PRC exams
Three of the most commonly confused:
Lawyers. Law is not among the 46 professions. Under Article VIII, Section 5(5) of the 1987 Constitution, the Supreme Court promulgates rules concerning the admission to the practice of law and the integrated bar. The Bar Examinations are administered under the Court's authority. Our Bar exam guide covers that route.
Ship officers. Republic Act No. 10635 made MARINA the single maritime administration implementing the STCW Convention, and provides that all powers, duties and functions of the PRC on the examination, licensing and certification system for marine deck and engine officers under Republic Act No. 8544, the Philippine Merchant Marine Officers Act of 1998, shall henceforth be exercised by MARINA. Marine engineering and marine transportation graduates are certified by MARINA, not PRC.
Pilots, seafarers below officer level, and most trades. Aviation licensing sits with the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines, and skills certification for most trades sits with TESDA. Neither is a PRC licensure examination.
Courses with no board exam at all
Working from the same register, these popular degrees have no PRC licensure examination, because no board covers their field:
- Computer Science, Information Technology, Information Systems, Computer Engineering
- Business Administration, Management, Marketing, Human Resource Management
- Economics, Political Science, International Studies
- Communication, Journalism, Broadcasting, Multimedia Arts
- Tourism Management, Hospitality Management, Culinary Arts
- Industrial Engineering
- Biology, Mathematics and Physics as pure degrees, unless the graduate proceeds to a regulated profession such as Medicine or teaching
That list is a description of the licensing regime, not a judgment on the careers. It means nobody can stop you practising for lack of a licence, and it also means employers will screen you on portfolio, experience and industry certifications rather than on a government examination result.
How to use this correctly
- Find your intended profession on the 46-board register above. If it is absent, there is no PRC exam.
- Read the governing law for the exact degree required, before you enrol.
- Check PRC's own published requirements for the specific examination, since document requirements differ by profession and by whether you are a first-timer or a repeater. Our guide to PRC board exam requirements covers the general pattern.
- Confirm that the school and program you are considering are recognised, since almost every board law makes recognition part of the eligibility test.
Do not rely on a school's course listing, an aggregator, or a review centre's marketing for any of the four. The board's own law and PRC's own pages are the only sources that decide whether you sit the exam.
Sources
- Professional Regulation Commission - Professional Regulatory Boards
- PRC Resolution No. 2113, s. 2025 - Schedule of Licensure Examinations for the Year 2026 (official PDF)
- Republic Act No. 8981 - PRC Modernization Act of 2000 (LawPhil)
- Republic Act No. 9173 - Philippine Nursing Act of 2002 (LawPhil)
- Republic Act No. 9298 - Philippine Accountancy Act of 2004 (LawPhil)
- Republic Act No. 11131 - Philippine Criminology Profession Act of 2018 (LawPhil)
- Republic Act No. 10635 - Establishing MARINA as the single maritime administration (LawPhil)
- 1987 Constitution of the Philippines, Article VIII (LawPhil)
