FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
AACRAO and CAEL Partner to Strengthen Institutional Approaches to Credit for Prior Learning
Washington, DC, June 9, 2026 —
The American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (AACRAO) is partnering with CAEL to help colleges and universities build stronger, more effective approaches to credit for prior learning (CPL). Through this collaboration, the two organizations will offer coordinated, complementary support services designed to help institutions expand access to CPL while maintaining academic integrity, sound policy, and reliable record-keeping practices.
Credit for prior learning continues to play an increasingly important role in higher education. As learners arrive with knowledge and skills gained through work, military service, industry credentials, training programs, and other forms of experiential learning, institutions face both an opportunity and a responsibility: to recognize college-level learning wherever it occurs while ensuring that credit is awarded, recorded, and applied through clear, consistent, and defensible processes.
AACRAO brings deep expertise in academic records, transfer, enrollment management, policy implementation, student information systems, and the operational realities of institutional change. CAEL brings a long-standing legacy in adult learning, experiential learning, and CPL strategy. Together, the organizations are helping institutions address CPL as both a student-success strategy and an academic-administration priority.
This partnership may begin with Adult Learner 360, CAEL’s diagnostic tool that combines decades of CAEL research with surveys of faculty, staff, and adult learners at participating institutions. The tool helps institutions assess key adult learner success factors, including credit for prior learning, and identify where institutional perspectives and learner experiences align or diverge.
From there, AACRAO experts can support institutions through CPL process mapping workshops focused on the policies, systems, and workflows that make CPL effective at scale. These workshops examine areas such as secure intake of learner materials, evaluation documentation, degree applicability, prerequisite clearance, transcript notation, and the accurate recording of awarded credit in student information systems.
These operational considerations are increasingly urgent as short-term credentials, industry-recognized learning, and alternative learning records continue to proliferate. Institutions are working to improve credit mobility while also safeguarding accuracy, consistency, and trust. AACRAO expertise is especially important in this environment because registrars, admissions officers, transfer professionals, and enrollment leaders are central to turning CPL policy into sustainable practice.
Historically, registrar and admissions functions have sometimes been described as gatekeeping roles. Today, those functions are better understood as essential architects of learning pathways. When implemented thoughtfully, CPL can help institutions recognize valid college-level learning, reduce unnecessary credit loss, improve time to completion, and better serve adult learners, transfer students, and other mobile learners.
The need for this work is clear. Institutions often face concerns about academic rigor, consistency, assessor training, portfolio review, documentation, fees, student awareness, and accreditation expectations. Many CPL programs require coordination across admissions, advising, academic departments, registrars, enrollment management, and technology teams. Without strong infrastructure, institutions may struggle to scale CPL in ways that are transparent, equitable, and credible.
The AACRAO-CAEL partnership is designed to help institutions address these challenges directly. By combining CAEL expertise in adult and experiential learning with AACRAO expertise in enrollment and academic administration, the partnership offers a holistic approach to CPL that supports both learner opportunity and institutional confidence.
AACRAO and CAEL are also exploring broader initiatives to support the field, including co-authored guidance on CPL practices, policy, common terminology, and quality guardrails. These resources will help institutions develop CPL approaches that are student-centered, academically sound, and operationally sustainable.
Institutions interested in learning more about this partnership and available CPL support services are encouraged to contact AACRAO (consulting@aacrao.org) for additional information.
AACRAO
AACRAO is a nonprofit professional association serving more than 18,000 higher education professionals at over 2,300 institutions worldwide, advancing best practices in admissions, records, enrollment management, and learning mobility.
AACRAO Media Contact: consulting@aacrao.org
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