Art. 5        Collective and individual members

¹Membership of the FEDE is open to people and institutions that share its views and objectives. The admission of new members is, in all cases, subject to the agreement of the association (Art. 8).

Collective member

²FEDE members are in principle collective members: independent schools, institutes and establish-ments that carry out educational activities; organisations or associations focusing on education, and professional or interprofessional organisations and trade unions. Collective members designate and appoint a natural person to act as their representative in their relations with the FEDE.

³Where several establishments are part of the same educational group, each establishment has its own representative. An establishment is defined as such on the basis of a company registration num-ber or equivalent national form of registration that distinguishes it from the educational group as a whole and from other establishments within the same group. Educational groups may decide at any time to designate, remove or modify the representatives of the establishments in the group; these are internal matters at the discretion of the educational groups and do not have to be justified by them.

Individual member

⁴Persons renowned for their services to education, new professions or job creation, or who have or have had high-profile and successful professional or academic careers, may be accepted as individual members. The same principle applies to persons who have previously held office within the Federa-tion and who feel an attachment to it.

Art. 6        Membership categories

Every individual or collective member necessarily belongs to one of the following six categories: full member, affiliated member, observer member, observer-full member, honorary member or qualified member.

^1-Full members are members who demonstrate or have demonstrated their dedication to the associa-tion’s cause; who, except in the case of unsurmountable circumstances, take part in General Assembly sessions and who make themselves available when necessary to carry out relevant tasks. Full members may receive a membership certificate and communicate their membership of the Federation to third parties; they may use the title ‘FEDE member’ or an equivalent term when referring to themselves. Full members have the right to vote.

^2-Affiliated members are legal persons who wish to be associated with the FEDE. In particular, they may be organisations or associations operating in the field of education, or else professional or inter-professional organisations and trade unions. Affiliated members may not be elected and do not have the right to vote.

^3-Observer members are members who carry out educational or teaching activity in a country that is not a member of the Council of Europe. Likewise, the legal persons mentioned in Art. 6(2) and that do not belong to a Council of Europe member state may also be accepted as ‘affiliated observer mem-bers’. Observer members may elect from amongst themselves observer-full members. Observer-full members have the same rights as full members. Affiliated observer members may not be elected and do not have the right to vote.

^4-Observer-full members are members elected from amongst and by observer members for a period of four years. They are elected in the year preceding that of the election of members of the Committee and of the Executive Council of the FEDE (no later than 31 December of the preceding year). Observer-full members have the right to vote and participate actively at General Assembly sessions. Observ-er-full members are appointed according to the Rules of Procedure.

^5-Honorary members are persons admitted to the association on the basis of special services rendered to the FEDE or the cause it defends. They may refer to themselves to third parties as ‘honorary FEDE members’. The membership category to which they belong is honorary. The status of honorary member does not carry voting rights.

^6-Qualified members are natural persons. They are individual members renowned for their services to education, new professions or job creation, or who have or have had high-profile and successful profes-sional or academic careers. The category to which they belong is honorary. The status of qualified member does not carry voting rights.

Art. 7        Membership privileges

Regardless of their membership category, all FEDE members are invited to events organised by the Federation and receive all the information reserved for members or intended to raise awareness of the FEDE and its members before government authorities and the public. Where FEDE initiatives or pro-grammes are also open to third parties, the conditions in place for members are in principle more fa-vourable than for non-members.

Art. 8        Admission of new members

¹A person or institution mentioned in Art. 5(1) that wishes to join the association must present their application in writing to the Chairperson. All applicants are required to pay in advance an application fee and an admission fee that are calculated according to a table of fees established by the Executive Council. Whatever the final decision made on the application, the application fee is not refundable. The admission fee is refunded if membership is refused.

²The application form is submitted to the Committee, which grants or does not grant the applicant membership status according to the various membership categories.

³The Chairperson transfers the duly completed and submitted application to the Committee for con-sideration at its next meeting following the receipt of the application form.

⁴Newly admitted members are placed in one of the categories specified in Art. 6. Applicants who do not agree with the decision taken by the Committee in this respect have the right to withdraw their ap-plication by stating this wish in writing to the Chairperson within 15 days of the decision.

⁵The Committee can impose on candidates a probationary year of activity within the FEDE before it decides whether to grant membership; this probationary year may be renewed once. In this case, the decision whether to grant definitive membership is made at the end of the probationary period. What-ever the final decision made, the application fee is not refundable. 50% of the admission fee is refund-ed if membership is refused.

⁶If an applicant does not agree with the Committee’s decision to impose a probationary period, it may withdraw its application by sending a written request to the Chairperson within 15 days. The applica-tion fee is not refundable.

⁷The categories of membership granted are listed in Article 6. An applicant that does not agree with the category of membership granted to it by the Committee has the right to withdraw its application by sending a written request to the Chairperson within 15 days.

⁸Furthermore, the right of appeal of applicants whose application is rejected, or who have grievances, is covered by Article 26.

Art. 9        Resignations

¹According to the law, ‘members are authorised by the law to leave the association, provided that their decision to leave is announced six months before the end of the calendar year or, in the case where a financial year has been defined, six months prior to the end of that year’.

²Resignations must be made in writing.

³Membership fees are due in keeping with Art. 20(4).

Art. 10        Expulsions

¹In conformity with Article 25, the Executive Council has the right to impose sanctions on members.

²The possible sanctions against members that do not respect the FEDE’s rules are: surveillance measures, reprimand, suspension, removal from office, and expulsion. The Executive Council is sov-ereign as to the degree of sanction applied.

³Only the General Assembly can pronounce the expulsion of members belonging to the Committee or Executive Council.

⁴The member is informed of the sanction in writing, and the reason is indicated.

⁵The excluded member’s right of appeal is governed by Art. 26.

⁶Membership fees are due in accordance with Art. 20(4).

⁷Members who are behind with payments of their membership fees, or with any other financial obliga-tions to the FEDE, automatically owe interest on arrears at the statutory rate in force in Switzerland + 2 percentage points.

⁸Where surveillance measures are applied, a surveillance fee will be charged.

⁹Any member subject to surveillance measures, suspension or removal from office in the year of elec-tions or the year preceding elections may not stand for election for membership of the Committee or Executive Council.

Art. 11        List of members

¹The association keeps an updated list of members that indicates their membership category and, in the case of collective members, the names of their respective representatives. The responsibility for keeping this list lies with the Chairperson (within the meaning of Art. 12b), who delegates its practical execution to a trustworthy person.

²In the case of a disparity or disparities between the list and the source documents (meeting reports, correspondence etc.), the information in the source documents takes precedence unless counterevi-dence is provided.

³The list may be freely consulted by members. The list is not assignable, transferable or usable. Con-sultation of the list may however be refused by the Executive Council for legitimate reasons, namely in cases where there is reason to believe that the list will be used in a way that is alien to or runs coun-ter to the interests of the association. In cases of doubt, the person in charge of keeping the list seeks the permission of the Executive Council before authorising the consultation of the list or providing a copy of it.

⁴The list of members is freely available to those members wishing to exercise their legal right to con-vene the General Assembly (Art. 12d(2)).

⁵The list of members may appear in the Federation’s publications (directory and other documents) as well as on its website. No member may refuse the inclusion of its name in the FEDE’s communica-tions or, particularly, in its directory. The refusal to be listed as a FEDE member entails immediate expulsion.

Art. 12       General Assembly

12a Membership

¹The General Assembly, as a decision-making body of the association, is composed exclusively of full and observer-full members.

²Affiliated members, observer members, honorary members and qualified members have the right to attend sessions of the General Assembly, but their vote is only advisory in nature.

³Individual members and the representatives of collective members within the meaning of Art. 5(2 and 3) attend General Assembly sessions and, according to their membership category, exercise a full or advisory vote.

12b Prerogatives

The General Assembly is the supreme body of the association. It approves the Federation’s strategy, appoints from amongst its members a Chairperson, who is automatically Chairperson of the Commit-tee and of the Executive Council, names the members of the Executive Council and Committee, and approves the Federation’s annual accounts and financial report. The General Assembly possesses all the other powers accorded it by the present Statutes.

12c Sessions

¹The General Assembly meets whenever necessary but at least once per year in the context of an ‘or-dinary session’. At this session the Federation’s accounts and finances for the current year or previ-ous financial year (within the meaning of Art. 22) are discussed, and, where necessary, the members of the Executive Council, the Committee and, where relevant, the auditors are elected or returned to office.

²The General Assembly is chaired by the Chairperson or, in the Chairperson’s absence, by the Vice-Chairperson or one of the Vice-Chairperson(s) if there are several, or, in the absence of the Vice-Chairperson(s), by another member of the Executive Council or the Committee. If none of these per-sons are available, the full members present elect a chairperson for the session from amongst themselves.

12d Convening the General Assembly

¹The General Assembly is convened by the Chairperson, the Executive Council or at least three mem-bers of the Executive Council.

²In keeping with the law, a request to convene a session of the General Assembly may be made by the Federation’s members if it is supported by at least one fifth of those members. The members con-cerned must be up to date with payment of their membership fees. This right belongs to all members of the categories set out in Articles 6(1) and 6(4). The request must be made to the Chairperson or the Executive Council.

³Notices convening the General Assembly are issued in writing and sent to every member, regardless of their membership category, at least one month in advance.

12e Agenda

Notices convening the General Assembly are accompanied by the agenda. Any member who has indi-vidual proposals to make may do so during the session in the ‘other business’ portion that must be in-cluded in the agenda.

12f Deliberations

¹Where the General Assembly has been duly convened it may legitimately deliberate regardless of the number of members present or represented.

²A member unable to attend the session in person may be represented by another member. However, a given member may not be proxy for more than three members (and cannot therefore be in possession of more than four ballot papers, including that member’s own). Moreover, a full member or observerfull member must be represented by another member of the same category (Art. 6). Powers of repre-sentation must be conferred in writing by the person to be represented (by proxy). Representation by a person who is not a member of the association is not allowed.

³An attendance list stating the names of members present and members represented is drawn up un-der the responsibility of the Chairperson or chairperson of the session. A list of proxies is annexed.

⁴The Chairperson or chairperson of the session also ensures that at least a brief report of the delibera-tions is drawn up by the General Secretary or the session Secretary appointed by the General Assem-bly to replace the General Secretary. The decisions mentioned in the report do not enter into force un-less the following conditions are met:

– the report is signed by at least two people (including the Chairperson or the session chairperson and its author);

– it states that the Assembly has been duly convened (or that all its members are present or represent-ed);

– it refers to the attendance list (or to the fact that all members are present);

– it states the results of the votes.

12g Votes/majorities

¹Every full member and every observer-full member who is present or duly represented enjoys a full vote at the General Assembly.

²Decisions are adopted by a majority of votes. Subject to the provision contained in paragraph 4 be-low, ‘majority’ means a simple majority.

³When determining whether a majority has been achieved, only members who are present or repre-sented and have paid their membership fees for the year preceding the holding of the Assembly will be counted; absent or unrepresented members are not counted under any circumstances. A simple ma-jority is achieved if the number of ‘yes’ votes in favour of the proposal put to vote exceeds the total number of ‘no’ votes.

⁴A qualified majority, where two thirds of votes cast are in favour of the proposal put to the vote, is required for the following decisions: modification of the Statutes; modification of the membership of the Committee or the Executive Council, particularly where the modification is sought prior to the end of the four-year term set out in Articles 13(2) and 14(3) of the present Statutes; decisions to be taken in cases of serious conflicts; and dissolution.

⁵In the case of a tie, the Chairperson has the casting vote.

⁶The Assembly may not vote on items not included in the agenda unless none of the full members and observer-full members present objects to this. Items such as modifications of the Statutes, dissolution, or modification of the membership of the Committee or the Executive Council must be explicitly in-cluded in the agenda and cannot be removed from it.

12h External persons

The presence at the General Assembly of external persons (non-members of the Federation) requires the prior agreement of the Chairperson or the Executive Committee.

Art. 13       Committee

¹The Committee is the body in charge of determining the FEDE’s strategy, in particular the associa-tion’s direction and policy. It examines all steps and initiatives to further the aims and objectives of the association and encourages meetings and exchanges between its members who, due to their geo-graphical spread, are not always able to meet in general assembly format as frequently as they wish.

²Committee members are elected by the General Assembly for a period of four years.

³In determining the Committee’s membership, attention is paid to the necessity of ensuring fair repre-sentation of the various nationalities belonging to the FEDE.

⁴The Committee meets as often as required and reports on its activities to the General Assembly.

⁵It possesses all the other powers accorded it by the Statutes.

Art. 14       Executive Council

¹The Executive Council is the body in charge of the operational management of the Federation. It gives its opinion on all important issues, liaises with members and manages the Federation’s day-to-day business.

²It reports on its activities to the Committee and the General Assembly and is responsible for produc-ing the annual report and accounts. It possesses all the other duties and powers accorded to it by the present Statutes, in addition to those duties and powers belonging to ‘management’ within the mean-ing of the law, providing these have not been granted to another body by the Statutes.

³The members of the Executive Council are elected by the General Assembly for a period of four years.

⁴The Executive Council is composed of persons holding the positions detailed in Art. 15 and of any other duly co-opted person. Co-optation nominations must be submitted for approval by the next scheduled General Assembly.

⁵The members of the Executive Council are automatically full members of the Committee.

⁶Once per year the Executive Council appoints the General Commissioner for Degrees, who is chosen from amongst the Committee members.

Art. 14a     Bureau

A Bureau is set up within the Executive Council that is composed of: the Chairperson, the Secretary General and the Treasurer. Its role is to:

– prepare Committee meetings;

– resolve any disputes between Committee members;

– resolve any disagreements on the part of a member concerning the decisions made by the Com-mittee under Article 10.

Art. 15       Principal positions within the Executive Council

¹The principal positions within the Executive Council are as follows:

-The Chairperson, who leads and directs the Executive Council, the Committee, and the General As-sembly; he or she holds the responsibilities inherent to the position and manages, amongst other things, relations with official international organisms. He or she ensures that the decisions of the Fed-eration’s bodies are executed and that the Federation, which he or she publicly represents, functions as it should. He or she convenes meetings. He or she may temporarily delegate some or all of his or her powers and choose to be represented by a vice-chairperson or other member of the Executive Council.

-One or several Vice-Chairpersons (a maximum of four) who have the task of assisting the Chairper-son according to his or her instructions and who may replace him or her where necessary.

-The General Secretary, who is in charge of the writing up of General Assembly, Committee and Ex-ecutive Council meeting reports; the publication of these reports is subject to signed approval by the Chairperson. The General Secretary, in collaboration with the General Commissioner for Degrees, en-sures the smooth running of evaluation and validation procedures. He or she is in contact with the di-rectors of member institutions. He or she coordinates the activities of the working committees and presents an annual report to the General Assembly.

-Possibly, a Vice General Secretary to assist and, where necessary, replace the General Secretary in the carrying out of his or her functions and responsibilities.

-A Treasurer: he or she is responsible for managing the treasury, for financial and budgetary monitor-ing, and for overseeing cashier and accounting services. He or she oversees the payment of member-ship fees and presents a periodic financial report to the Assembly.

-One or more (a maximum of three) other members who manage any files that are considered to be particularly important.

²The General Assembly is responsible for assigning these positions to given members of the Executive Council; if the corresponding decisions are not taken by the General Assembly then they are taken by the Executive Council or Committee.

Art. 16a       National Delegations

¹FEDE Delegations formed outside of Switzerland must exist in the form of an association or equiva-lent entity within the meaning of local law. Their statutory aim must, moreover, be in strict conformity with that of the present Statutes. The membership of their management organs must consist for the most part of members of the FEDE Executive Council.

²These Delegations do not have members in their own right: any persons contacting them to request membership join the FEDE; the admissions procedure outlined in Art. 8 is applied to them. These Delegations may not be named FEDE. They must carry the name of their country in the corresponding language attached to the acronym FEDE in the format ‘FEDE Country’ (e.g. FEDE France, FEDE Spain, FEDE Morocco etc.).

Art. 16b  Local members may participate at meetings of the organs of a national Delegation and carry an advi-sory vote but must not exceed 50 % of the office-holding members of the organs concerned.

Art. 16c  So as to prevent any profit-making activities from contradicting the nonprofit and non-economic na-ture of the FEDE (Art. 4), the decision to create economic subdivisions to finance the principal objec-tive of the FEDE may only be taken by the Executive Council.

Art. 17       Auditors

Each year the General Assembly may name a monitoring body in charge of checking the annual ac-counts. Its members shall be professionals who are not members of the association. The monitoring body may be dismissed at any time.

Art. 18       Committees

18a Function

¹Working committees may be established under the aegis of or from within the FEDE in order to ad-dress specific issues relating to the Federation’s aim and mission.

²The committees are not authorised to represent the Federation before third parties, to speak in its name or to perform legal acts on its behalf. The same restriction applies to the chairpersons and mem-bers of these committees.

18b Organisation

The membership of the committees, the appointment of their members and the distribution of roles amongst the members must be approved by the Executive Council. Each committee reports on its ac-tivities to the Executive Council.

18c Member-led initiatives

Where one or several members of the FEDE wish to set up a committee or to participate in an initia-tive to that end, they must refer the matter to the Chairperson who will consult the Executive Council.

18d Monitoring

The work of the committees is overseen by the Chairperson or his or her representative, who will ensure that their activity and functioning are in conformity with the objectives and spirit of the Federa-tion. If the Chairperson or his or her representative considers that this is not, or is no longer, the case or that the committee members are ill-suited to their roles, he or she will take whatever measures he or she, in agreement with the Executive Council, considers appropriate and will inform the General As-sembly of this; in urgent cases he or she will convene the General Assembly.

18e Protection of the interests and name of the FEDE

A committee set up without the knowledge of the Federation’s management bodies, that is not recog-nised by the Federation or does not have its approval, may not in any circumstances present itself to third parties as an emanation of the FEDE, nor claim any association of whatever kind with the Feder-ation. This is the case even where all the participants of the committee are members of the association.

Art.19        The association’s resources

The association’s resources consist of, amongst other things, membership fees, donations from third parties, any subsidies provided by public-law or private-law organisms, application and admission fees paid by applicants, sums paid by members, learners and alumni for services provided, any surplus resulting from initiatives and events organised under the aegis of the association, royalties and various proceeds resulting from agreements with external entities, and income generated from the Federa-tion’s assets.

Art.20        Membership fees

¹Members pay an annual membership fee, the amount of which is determined by the Executive Coun-cil. The Executive Council may establish different fees for collective and/or individual members.

²Where several institutions or organisations are part of a single group (Art. 5 (3)), each of them must pay the annual membership fee since they all benefit from the advantages of FEDE membership.

³Honorary members are dispensed from the requirement to pay membership fees but may choose to pay them on a voluntary basis.

⁴Members who have resigned or been expelled, and who were subject to membership fees, owe mem-bership fees for the period during which they were members. They must also pay the membership fee corresponding to the year of resignation or expulsion.

⁵Invoices for membership fees are sent out in January of each year and are payable immediately on receipt.

Art.21        Assets

Members of the association have no individual right over the assets of the association. No refund or return is made in the case of death or if a member leaves the association.

Art. 22        Financial year

The financial year corresponds to the calendar year unless a decision to the contrary is taken by the Executive Council.

Art.23       Liability

¹Members of the association are not personally liable for the commitments entered into by the Federa-tion.

²Liability for these commitments is limited to the association’s assets.

Art.24       Representation

¹The association is bound by the individual signature of its Chairperson or by the collective signature of two members of the Executive Council, subject to acceptance by the Swiss authorities. Signing au-thorities have been registered with the Swiss authorities.

²Moreover, no member or other person may act or speak on behalf of the FEDE unless that person has been mandated by the Chairperson or the Executive Council, which represent the association before third parties.

Art.25       Infractions

¹In conformity with Article 10, the Executive Council may impose sanctions in response to infractions committed by any member that:

o do not respect the rules of the association;

o behaves disloyally towards the association;

o does not meet its quality-education obligations;

o does not respect the FEDE’s quality charter;

o violates the rules of ethics and impartiality;

o uses, on its own behalf, any communications activity or material of whatsoever nature, relating to accreditations, approvals, certifications, cooperation              agree-ments, partnerships or projects concluded between the FEDE and third-party or-ganisations or granted to the FEDE;

o does not pay its memberships fee, where the fee is payable by the member;

o does not meet its financial obligations or pay any sum owed for services provided by the association within 90 days after the invoice is issued;

o does not meet its pedagogical obligations to the association, particularly as con-cerns respect of the charter;

o does not respect the general examinations rules and the specific rules;

o refuses to be named as a FEDE member, in accordance with article 11.

Art.26        Appeals

¹Any members or applicants who consider they have been injured by a decision of the Executive Council or a decision of a person holding office within the association has the right to file an appeal with the Committee. The same right applies if the appellant considers that the decision taken violates the law or Statutes.

²Appeals are filed in writing and addressed to the Chairperson within 30 days of the appellant’s re-ceiving notice of the disputed decision.

³Appelants have the right to be heard. They will be summoned to the next Committee session. The Committee pronounces the final decision.

⁴If no Committee session is scheduled in the three months following the filing of the appeal, appel-lants may convene a session, at their own costs and by their own means, so that a decision may be is-sued relative to their appeal. The appellant may not, however, independently take the initiative in add-ing other items to the agenda for the session convened

5If the disputed decision was made by the Chairperson or another person holding office within the association, the file is first examined by the Executive Council and is only transferred to the Commit-tee if no agreement can be reached with the appellant within 60 days following the filing of the ap-peal.

⁶The filing of an appeal does not in itself suspend the disputed decision. If the disputed decision is annulled, no sanctions will be applied to the persons who took it, except where they are guilty of seri-ous misconduct.

⁷Third parties do not enjoy the right to appeal that is described in the present Article, with the excep-tion of applicants to join the association whose applications within the meaning of Art. 8 have been refused. Where applicants dispute the decision to refuse them entry, the Committee, after hearing their appeal, once again debates their application in a closed meeting and vote by secret ballot on the ques-tion ‘Admitted? Yes/no.’.

⁸The internal appeals procedure set out in the present Article does not apply to decisions taken by the General Assembly, for which legal recourse alone may be envisaged (Art. 75 of the Civil Code).

Art.27        Dissolution

The association may only decide its dissolution during a General Assembly session. Any assets re-maining after liquidation and once all debts have been paid may not in any case be transferred to members. The assets will preferably be given to a nonprofit institution of the same kind or to a foun-dation.

Art.28        Changes to the Statutes

The present Statutes may be modified at any time by a decision of the General Assembly, acting in accordance with the provisions of Art. 12g(4).

Art.29        Entry into force

The present Statutes, adopted by the General Assembly session of 5 April 2023, enter into force im-mediately and replace all previous statutes.