Pilot program — funded by the Gates Foundation
The national infrastructure for credit mobility
CRED is a centralized, API-accessible repository of course and transfer equivalency data — open to institutions, vendors, and researchers as shared public-good infrastructure. So learning counts, wherever it was earned.
1 in 3
learners transfer between colleges during their education journey
43%
of earned credits are lost on average when students transfer (U.S. GAO, 2017)
$0
cost for core data access — equivalency data as a public good, forever
Course and equivalency data today is fragmented across systems, inconsistently defined, and locked behind proprietary platforms. Students learn whether their credits count afterthey enroll — and too often, they don't. CRED fixes the data layer so every downstream tool can fix the student experience.
How CRED works
A continuously validated, versioned national repository — populated by authoritative sources, published through standards-based APIs.
1. Contribute
Institutions and authorized vendors contribute course catalogs and equivalency decisions — through the Acadeum network, the Ad Astra SIS pipeline, browser upload, or direct API integration.
2. Validate & version
Every record is validated against controlled vocabularies and referential integrity rules, then stored with immutable version history and full provenance — who decided, when, and under what policy.
3. Publish & notify
Data is published through documented REST APIs, bulk exports, and signed webhooks — so SIS platforms, advising tools, and transfer products stay current automatically.
A consortium effort — funded by the Gates Foundation
GATES FOUNDATION
Founding Funder
ACADEUM
Lead Technical Partner
AACRAO
Institutional Adoption & Registrar Standards
ACE
Research, Policy & Credit Recommendations
AD ASTRA
SIS Integration Partner
A public good, by structure
Core equivalency data in CRED is available at no cost under transparent, published access terms. An independent governance entity — with an institutional advisory board and a vendor neutrality panel — holds decision rights over data access, pricing, and roadmap. Neutrality is enforced by structure, not by promise.
Read the governance modelBuilt for integration, not lock-in
CRED is API- and webhook-driven from day one, aligned with 1EdTech Edu-API, PESC, and CEDS vocabularies, keyed to IPEDS institution identifiers, and interoperable with Credential Engine's CTDL. It complements existing SIS, LMS, and transfer tools — it does not replace them.
View API documentationJoin the pilot
Acadeum network institutions, Ad Astra clients, and new partners can begin contributing and consuming equivalency data today.