Accreditation and the granting of credentials have traditionally been an institutional issue. But that is changing with the increasing internationalization of distance education, for several reasons:

• The increasing availability of courses from several sources
• The growing movement toward granting credit for assessed experiential learning
• The move away from the traditional assumption that credentials will normally be earned from a single institution.

The need for ready transfer of credit across institutional and even national boundaries has only grown with the development of private and corporate education programs delivered at a distance. In response to that need, several national and international agencies have been established to facilitate credit transfers. Examples of proposed and established agencies include:

• The CAT scheme operated by the former United Kingdom Council for National Academic Awards
• The Commonwealth credit bank proposed by the Commonwealth of Learning (COL)
• The Global Alliance for Transnational Education (GATE), based in Washington, DC.