ALTE Associate Membership is open to institutions or consortia which are involved in the development, application, administration or research in the field of Language Assessment. These may be companies, chains of language schools, independent language schools, universities, research institutions, public sector or government bodies, ministries, technology providers, NGOs, etc.* They are not full members, and if they produce tests, ALTE does not support the recognition of the quality of their tests and their related uses. However, Associate Members are encouraged to meet high standards of quality in language assessment. Associate Membership status was known as ‘Institutional Affiliation’ before 2021.

* Organisations which only administer tests or facilitate testing on behalf of other organisations are not eligible to become Associate Members.

Benefits of becoming an Associate Member include:

• Use of the ALTE Associate Member logo
• Listing on the ALTE website
• Opportunity to collaborate on projects
• Access to sections of the ALTE website
• Invitation to attend ALTE biannual conferences and other events organised for Members
• Reduced delegate rates at specified ALTE events and training seminars (courses)
• The opportunity to receive ALTE communications 
• The opportunity to exhibit at appropriate ALTE events
• The opportunity to work in ALTE Special Interest Groups
• Opportunities to build international links through the ALTE network
• The opportunity to upgrade to Full Membership at a later date, if certain conditions are met. (See 'Bli ALTE Full Member')

In order to be an Associate Member, institutions must:

a) be a legal entity which is legally registered**

b) have read and agreed to the terms of the ALTE constitution

c) have an active involvement in Language Assessment (LA) in one or more of the following areas:

d) aspire to meet high standards of quality and service in language testing and adhere to ALTE’s Principles of Good Practice  

The ALTE Board of Trustees reserves the right to change the criteria for membership. Associate Members will be informed at least 4 months in advance of any such changes.

** Applicants for Associate Membership should be able to provide valid evidence of their legal status, if required by the Board of Trustees. In case of legal registrations in different countries,  Applicants must communicate to ALTE the country they decide to refer on among the ones where they are legally registered.

Please note we are temporarily unable to process applications from organisations based in the Russian Federation, Belarus or Iran. 

Procedure to become an Associate Member

1. Complete the online ALTE Associate Member application form (see link at the bottom of the page), which asks you for information about your institution, its history and current interests, its work in relation to language testing, and the areas you hope to develop in the future through to your participation in ALTE.  Incomplete application forms will not be processed.

2. Associate Membership application forms are reviewed quarterly by the ALTE Secretariat and representatives from the ALTE Board of Trustees. Please submit your application by the "Closing Date for Applications" below in order to be notified whether your application has been successful by the corresponding "Date of Notification". If your application is successful, you should sign the Associate Member Agreement by the "Deadline to return Agreement" in the third column. The date and amount (either full or half - see point 4 below) of the first invoice for the subscription fee is also shown. 

Closing Date for Applications	Date of Notification	Deadline to return Agreement	Month of first invoice	Amount of first invoice
31 March 2024	13 May 2024	10 June 2024	June 2024	Half amount for 2024
30 June 2024	12 August 2024	9 September 2024	September 2024	Half amount for 2024
30 September 2024	18 November 2024	16 December 2024	January 2025	Full amount for 2025
31 December 2024	10 February 2025	10 March 2025	March 2025	Full amount for 2025

3. If the Board accepts your institution, you will be asked to complete and sign the ALTE Associate Membership agreement. This must be done within 4 weeks of being notified that the institution has been accepted as an Associate Member, according to the deadline above (third column). Failing to send the Associate Membership Agreement signed in time, will result in restarting the procedure of the application for associate membership. If you would like to examine the Membership Agreement in advance, please contact the ALTE Secretariat.

4. Upon receipt of the Associate Membership Agreement, duly completed and signed by the legal representative of the institution, the Secretariat will issue an invoice during the "Month of first invoice" (fourth column above) to pay the annual subscription fee. For Associate Members who are invoiced in June or later, a 'half amount' will be invoiced. Thereafter, the full subscription fee is payable at the beginning of each calendar year. The subscription fees for Associate Members depend on which payment tier your organisation falls into:

There are three payment tiers for Associate Members:

Regular: Most institutions will fall within the Regular payment tier.

Small-scale: ALTE wishes to encourage smaller institutions to take part in the life of the association, and thus has a reduced rate for institutions that fall into one of these categories:

• you are a small independent language school (not part of a chain) in one location, OR
• you are a small business that produces in-house assessments only for a limited number of test-takers in one location, OR
• you are another sort of institution with a similar small scale remit

If you feel your institution should be considered in the Small-scale tier, please state this in the relevant place on the Associate Member application form, and the Board of Trustees will work with you to determine if this is the case. The Board's decision on whether you fall into the Small-scale tier is final.

National Developmental: ALTE wishes to encourage multilingualism in language testing organisations from less established public sector and governmental institutions, and thus has a reduced rate for institutions that fall into all of these categories:

• you are a national or regional governmental Ministry of Education, or a national or regional government appointed testing body/commission (evidence should be presented) AND
• you provide language tests for (a) national or regional language(s) of that country/region as a second or additional language AND
• you carry out regular language testing within that country/region (at least, if not elsewhere) AND
• you do not come from a ‘High income’ economy as defined in the most recently available World Bank Development Indicators

If you feel your institution should be considered in the National Developmental tier, please state this in the relevant place on the Associate Member application form, email secretariat@alte.org with supporting documentation, and the Board of Trustees will work with you to determine if this is the case. The Board's decision on whether you fall into the National Developmental tier is final.

Associate Member Payment Tier	2024 rates	2025 rates
Regular	€500	€650
Small-scale	€200	€260
National Developmental	€200	€260
Regular (Half amount - new Associate Members invoiced in June or later in the year, for first year only)	€250	€325
Small-scale (Half amount – new Associate Members invoiced in June or later in the year, for first year only)	€100	€130
National Developmental (Half amount – new Associate Members invoiced in June or later in the year, for first year only)	€100	€130

 

5. The annual fee must be paid timely according to the terms of the invoice. Delays in payment may affect your membership with ALTE and/or your chances of being re-accepted in the future. 

Note: transfer of membership is not usually permitted - but see the Rules on Transfer of Membership.

Complete ALTE Associate Membership application form

Please note that by completing the ALTE Associate Membership application form you are agreeing for ALTE to view, use and process all data you input, which may include personal data, and for ALTE to store this data to process your application and, if your application is successful, keep on file for the duration of time that you are an ALTE Member.