What Is The Difference Between MAICD And GAICD?

GAICD is not a step across from MAICD. It is MAICD plus a course, plus an assessment most people do not realise is optional.

That is the whole answer. The AICD’s own eligibility page for the Graduate grade says it plainly: to use the GAICD post-nominals “you must meet the requirements of an AICD Member and have completed the Company Directors Course“. You cannot hold GAICD without also qualifying as a Member. They are not two doors into the same room.

The five grades

Affiliate (AAICD). No eligibility test at all — “the grade is open to anyone with an interest in governance”. Aspiring directors and executives who sit in front of a board.

Member (MAICD). Earned by what you have done, not what you have studied. Two years’ experience as a director, as an executive reporting into a board, or as a business owner or partner. Faculty heads and professors qualify separately.

Graduate (GAICD). Member eligibility, plus the Company Directors Course, plus passing its assessment.

Fellow (FAICD). By application, quarterly, not by invitation.

Life Fellow (FAICD(Life)). Conferred.

Both MAICD and GAICD require Director CPD points to maintain. Neither is permanent.

What the course actually buys you

The clearest number in the whole scheme sits in the Fellow criteria, and almost nobody quotes it.

To apply for FAICD you need three consecutive years of AICD membership and then either six years of directorship experience in the past twelve as a GAICD, or ten years as an MAICD.

The course takes four years off the Fellow pathway. Whatever else it does for your governance knowledge, that is the part with a number attached, and it is the honest way to think about the fee.

The assessment is the part people miss

Sitting the Company Directors Course does not make you a GAICD. The assessment — an assignment, an exam and a quiz, with 90 days to finish — is optional, and the AICD is explicit that “you must successfully complete these to achieve the Company Directors Course Award and GAICD post-nominal”.

Attend, skip the assessment, and you have a professional development week and no post-nominals. If the letters are why you are going, book the assessment when you book the course.

What it costs, briefly

Member pricing runs from $5,800 for self-paced online to $13,435 residential; non-member from $8,000 to $16,835. We keep the full comparison, including what equivalent programmes cost at other institutions and overseas, on a separate page about AICD fees.

Note the arithmetic buried in that spread: the non-member premium is roughly $2,200 to $3,400 depending on format, which is more than a year of membership. If you are doing the course, join first.

What we would do

If you already sit on a board, take MAICD and stop there for now. It is the grade your experience already earns. Spending five figures to convert it to GAICD makes sense when you are within sight of the six-year Fellow threshold, or when a specific board has told you it wants the qualification. Not before.

If you are trying to get a first seat, the letters are not the constraint. Boards fill seats through people who have seen your judgement, not through post-nominals — how first board seats are actually filled covers what does move the needle. And if you want the education without the AICD price, there are alternatives to the Company Directors Course worth reading first — and a separate note on whether you need the course to be a NED at all.

If you are already enrolled, sit the assessment. It is the difference between a course and a credential, and you have already paid for the hard part.

All membership criteria and course details verified against the AICD 19 August 2026. Eligibility: Member (MAICD), Graduate (GAICD), Fellow (FAICD) and Affiliate (AAICD). Course formats, fees and assessment requirements: AICD Company Directors Course. Fees quoted are the AICD’s published prices as at that date and change without notice — check before you budget.
Most recent source consulted: 19 August 2026.