Description: Lifelong learning enables learners to develop throughout their lives. This learning takes place in formal, non-formal and informal learning environments (Colardyn, & Bjørnavold, 2004). Universities, all over the world, are changing their policies to use procedures in which prior learning experiences (knowledge, skills or competences) are assessed and credited in order to get access to higher education. These procedures are known under different names, like Assessment of Prior Learning (APL), Accreditation of Prior Experiential Learning (APEL), or Prior Learning Assessment and Recognition (PLAR). This paper describes the differences and communalities between these procedures, taken into account the approaches, the type of learning, the possible outcomes, the structures, the quality criteria of the evidence of prior learning experiences, the role and the organization of support, and the time investment of students and institutes while attending the procedure.Research question: What are the differences and commonalities of procedures to assess and credit prior learning experiences? Methodology: A literature search was conducted using the databases of www.scholar.google.com, the Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC), Psychlit and Current Contents Connect. To find the most appropriate concept for the procedure to assess and credit prior learning experiences, several concepts passed. These concepts (APL, PLAR, EVC and others) are used as key words in the database search. Other key words were "prior learning" and adult and "experience OR experiential" and "evidence". Through the so-called snowball method, the references in the found documents were checked for other studies. The abstracts of these sources were analyzed on the existence of characteristics related to the research question, such as name and definition , type of learning, benefits, structure, the assessment method, quality criteria, possible outcomes, the role of the students, and the time investment of both the students and the institutes. 54 documents remained for the review. Conclusions: Results show that there are many different procedures. In the following we use PLAR as the overall term for these procedures. Although the many procedures, a large overlap is found in structure, the use of a portfolio as an instrument to gather evidence, and the high attention to the quality criteria. Also, an important finding is that students experience difficulties in gathering evidence in relation to the educational program they want to attend. Only few researchers investigated the amount of time that PLAR demands. Differences are found on three aspects. First, the approach to PLAR differs. PLAR is seen as a vision on learning, based on the idea of a continuous interaction between learning and working, as a procedure, indicating that it is not about a one-shot measurement, but about a process, and finally as a type of assessment. Second, the type of learning involved in PLAR varies from informal, non-formal and formal learning and it varies from knowledge, skills and competences. Third, PLAR differs in the possible outcomes. The outcome might be access to an educational program, or as certification of an educational program. .Support to enhance students ability to gather evidence effectively and efficiently is recommended and will be addressed in future research.