WHAT IS CPL? Credit for Prior Learning (CPL) is a practice used by institutions at or close to the time of a student's admission to award academic credit for demonstrated competency and mastery earned in other settings—such as independent study, noncredit courses, work experience, licensure or certification, or a credit by examination program. According to studies, CPL can help more students graduate.

Learn more at www.pearsonhighered.com/credit-for-prior-learning and www.acenet.edu/CEAI

The Case for Credit for Prior Learning

Accelerating Degree Attainment

WHO CAN BENEFIT? WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?

75% of today’s students are juggling some combination

of families, jobs, and school while commuting to campus.

Veterans are more likely than non-veterans to have earned some college credit. They are also:

• less likely to have earned bachelor’s degrees

• more likely to be unemployed

Adult students awarded CPL were 2.5 times more likely to persist in their education and complete their degrees than students who received no credit for their prior learning. 

By 2020, there will be 55 million job openings.

1 in 5 Americans of working age has some college credit but no degree.

A Stronger Nation through Higher Education: How and Why Americans Must Achieve a

Big Goal for College Attainment. A Special Report from Lumina Foundation. D Matthews -

Lumina Foundation for Education, 2012

Time is the Enemy: The Surprising Truth about Why Today's College Students Aren't

Graduating and What Needs to Change by Complete College America, 2011

United States Census Bureau data as presented in Center for American Progress.

“Sending Veterans to School: Fast Facts on the Post-9/11 G.I. Bill,” April 25, 2012

Source: Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System

(IPEDS), Institutional Characteristics Survey, Fall 2012

75% of Americans would be more likely to enroll in a higher education program if they could receive credit for what they already know.

America's Call for Higher Education Redesign:

The 2012 Lumina Foundation Study of the American

Public’s Opinion on Higher Education. Gallup, Inc. 2013

75%

Rebecca Klein-Collins, Fueling the Race to Postsecondary Success: a 48-Institution Study of Prior Learning Assessment and Adult Student Outcomes (Council for Adult and Experiential Learning, 2010

65% will require some postsecondary education. Our current system will fail to produce those skilled workers, falling short by 5 million postsecondary credentials.

Recovery: Job Growth And Education Requirements Through 2020, Center on

Education and the Workforce at Georgetown, June 2013

Only 27% of 2- and 4-year institutions grant academic

credit to students for learning obtained outside the college classroom.

WHAT ARE THE BARRIERS?