Constitution

Section I Name and Purpose

Article 1. (Name)
The name of this Network is The Asia Professional Education Network, hereinafter referred to as APEN.

Article 2. (Purpose)
The purposes of APEN are to enhance collaboration among organizations having the professional education system focusing on the Project Based Learning (hereinafter referred to as PBL) and to help build industrial community that contributes to social well-being in Asia.

Section II the Board of Directors

Article 3. (Directors)
Directors shall belong to academic entities of regular members.
(a) Chairperson of APEN,
(b) Secretary General of the Secretariat of APEN, and
(c) one nominated representative of each Local Chapter shall be directors.

Article 4. (Board)
The Board of Directors shall be the main decision-making entity of the APEN. It shall be responsible for decision-making of major issues including the appointment of new directors.
Decision making of the Board shall be operated under the principle of decision by majority.
The term “Board” when printed with an initial capital, where used in this constitution, indicates the Board of Directors.

Article 5. (Term of Directors)
The term of directors shall be three years, not excluded to be reelected for successive terms.

Article 6. (Election of the Chair)
The members of the Board shall elect the Chairperson and the Vice-Chairperson(s) from the members of the Board by mutual election. The Chairperson shall represent the APEN.
Chairperson (Vice-Chairperson(s)) may be called President (Vice-President(s)).

Article 7. (Term of the Chair)
The terms of the Chairperson and the Vice-chairperson(s) shall be three years, not excluded to be reelected for successive terms.

Article 8. (Secretary General)
The Chairperson shall nominate the Secretary General of the Secretariat of APEN.

Article 9. (BOD Meeting)
The Board Meeting should be held at least once a year.

Article 10. (Proxy)
A member of the Board may send a proxy to the meeting of the Board, when a member could not be able to attend the meeting.

Article 11. (Alternative BOD Meeting)
The Chairperson may ask the members of the Board to vote by mail or other means, without calling a meeting in person, when the issues are considered relatively not significant by the Chairperson.

Article 12. (Honorable Member Title)
The Chairperson may give titles to the person who contribute much to APEN activities. The Chairperson shall report to the Board of giving such titles.

Article 13. (Committees)
The Board, by the initiative of the Chairperson, may settle committees on specific issues.
APEN Committees shall be organizations operated by APEN members (defined in SectionⅣ) in accordance with the APEN’s purpose.
Each Committee shall have a Steering Committee composed of APEN members to assume full responsibility for the planning and management of the Committee.
Members other than Steering Committee members may not be APEN members.
Each Steering Committee shall have a chairperson, and he/she shall be the Chairperson of the Committee.
The Steering Committee Chairperson nominates its members from among APEN members.
Each Committee shall set terms of reference (TOR) for its operation, submit the TOR to the Board and ensure the TOR is endorsed by the Board.
Each Committee shall submit a report on its activities to the Board upon its request, and at least once a year.
The Chairperson of APEN may order the Committees to be dissolved whenever the Board so determines.

Section III　the Advisory Committee

Article 14. (Role)
The role of the Advisory Committee should be giving advises on the APEN activities to the Board of Directors’ Meeting of APEN.

Article 15. (Membership)
Former directors of each country chapter of APEN who expressed their intentions to be members of the Advisory Committee, and persons who have been appointed by present directors of each country chapter should be eligible to be members of the Advisory Committee.

Article 16. (Terms)
The terms of the members of the Advisory Committee shall be three years, not excluded to be re-nominated for successive terms.

Section Ⅳ the Secretariat of APEN

Article 17. (Secretariat)
The Secretariat of APEN shall take secretariat affairs of APEN. The term “secretariat” when printed with an initial capital, where used in this constitution, indicates the Secretariat of APEN. The Secretariat shall temporally be settled in and financed by Advanced Institute of Industrial Technology.

Article 18. (Representing the Secretariat)
The Secretary General shall represent and supervise the Secretariat. The Secretary General annually reports activities and accounts of the Secretariat to the Board.

Section Ⅴ Members

Article 19. (Two categories)
There shall be two categories of APEN members, namely regular members and supporting members. Unless and until otherwise determined by the Board, there shall be no membership fees payable by members.

Article 20. (Regular members)
Entities are eligible to become regular members if they share purposes of APEN and have determined to contribute to APEN’s activities.
Regular members come from academia will have privileges to nominate to the Board a person for a Director representing the Local Chapter who will serve as a Board member.
Regular members may offer proposals and comments to the Director of the Local Chapter.

Article 21. (Supporting members)
Entities are eligible to become supporting members if they share concepts and purposes of APEN, and have determined to support APEN’s activities.

Article 22. (Admission of new members)
An entity that wishes to become a regular member or a supporting member shall submit an application in written form to the Chairperson of the Board through Director of the Local Chapter to which the entity belongs to. The application shall be reviewed by the Board, and if the Board accepted the application, the Chairperson shall inform the applicant APEN will admit it as an APEN member.

Article 23. (Withdrawal)
An APEN member may withdraw at any time subject to three (3) months’ notice to the Chairperson.

Section Ⅵ Local Chapters

Article 24. (Establishment of Local Chapters)
The Board may establish Local chapters.

Article 25. (Members)
Majority of Local Chapter members shall be members of APEN. Other membership and Constitutions of each Local Chapter shall be decided among members of each Local Chapter. Each Local Chapter may hold an independent secretariat.

Article 26. (Representative)
Each Local Chapter shall send one representative to the Board as a director and he/she will join the Board after assignment by Board Meeting. The director shall report activities of the Local Chapter to the Board.

Article 27. (Support)
The Chairperson of the Board may ask the Secretariat of APEN to take secretariat affairs of Local Chapters.

Section Ⅶ Clubs

Article 28. (Establishing Clubs)
The Chairperson of APEN, or chairpersons of Local Chapters may establish APEN Clubs which consist of persons or entities and support Local Chapter activities. The Secretariat of APEN or of Local Chapter shall supervise the activities of APEN Clubs. APEN Clubs shall report their activities to the Secretariat at least annually.

Article 29. (Club Members)
APEN Clubs may include persons of entities of non APEN members.
The Representative of APEN Clubs shall be the member of APEN.

Section Ⅷ PBL programs

Article 30. (Definition of PBL)
The PBL program in the APEN shall be defined as the education program with the specific training project carried out by students, which is equipped with the definitely designed education process with clearly declared learning targets and proper assessment system.

Section Ⅸ Amendments

Article 31. (Procedure)
Amendments to this Constitution shall be made by the decision of the Board. Decision shall be made by the majority of directors including proxies.

Article 32. (Proposal Right)
Amendments may be proposed by directors.
A director who proposes amendments shall submit the amendments proposals to the Chairperson in a written form and the Chairperson shall mail the proposals to each director in advance to the meeting of the Board where the amendments shall be discussed.

Riders

Article 33.
APEN was founded on June 6, 2011 with a declaration of establishment made by four universities of Japan, China, South Korea and Vietnam. The initial Board Members were as follows:
Chairperson of APEN, Dr. Shintaro Ishijima, President of Advanced Institute of Industrial Technology
Executive Director of the Secretariat of APEN, Professor Mitsuhiro Maeda, Advanced Institute of Industrial Technology

Directors from:
Chairperson of APEN China Chapter, Professor Zhibin Jiang, Director of Academic Affairs Office, Shanghai Jiao Tong University
Chairperson of APEN Japan Chapter, Dr. Seiichi Kawata, Dean and Professor of Advanced Institute of Industrial Technology
Chairperson of APEN Korea Chapter, Professor Sangchul Won, Director of Steel Processing, Automation Research Center,
Pohang University of Science and Technology
Chairperson of APEN Vietnam Chapter, Rector Nguyen Ngoc Binh, Vietnam National University, Hanoi (VNU), University of Engineering & Technology

Article 34.
Amendment record:
Issued on June 6, 2011
Issued on June 28, 2012
Issued on July 3, 2013
Issued on December 1, 2014
Issued on July 1, 2015
Issued on November 1, 2021