The Vaudoise section of the student company of Zofingue is no longer a university association recognized by the University of Lausanne (UNIL) and by the Federal Polytechnic School of Lausanne (EPFL). These two establishments had refused to renew this status, due to the fact that the association is exclusively reserved for male students.
This decision was canceled last year by the Vaud Cantonal Court, but the Federal Court (TF) has just admitted the appeal formed by the Hautes écoles. He believes that the principle of gender equality takes precedence over freedom of association. “As self -laws of autonomous public law, universities are not only in law, but also have the duty, to contribute to the realization of gender equality in the educational context,” said the TF in a press release.
La Haute-Cour stresses that a member of a university association is advantaged in his professional career by having in particular access to the network of former members already active on the labor market. She notes that the Zofingue company has around 3000 members throughout Switzerland. “If the students are denied access to this network only because of their gender, they do not benefit from the same equal opportunities as male students,” said the press release.
However, judges the TF, a university has precisely the task of ensuring equal opportunities and taking measures for this purpose on the campus. This is why he gave the UNIL and EPFL the right not to be forced to accept the student society of Zofingue, whose statutes induce an inequality of processing between the sexes.
Accepted thirty years ago
In 1994, the Vaudoise section of Zofingue had been recognized by UNIL. This status gave him the right, as well as to the other student associations admitted on the campus, to hold his assemblies in the premises of the Lausanne University and to present themselves on the Haute École website. But the UNIL had refused to renew this recognition in 2022, while the EPFL had already made it in 2020. A choice now ratified by the Federal Court.
