Education is a key export for the U.S., and enabling more international students to take advantage of U.S. universities benefits everyone. peerTransfer, the Boston-based startup building an international tuition payment platform, crossed a key milestone today in service of that goal, with the announcement that it had crossed the milestone of 100 partner schools.

peerTransfer was founded out of MIT and allows international tuition payments to participating colleges and universities for a fraction of the fees normally charged by banks.

In the first quarter of 2011, peerTransfer secured 37 new partner schools, including UMASS Amherst, Rutgers University and MIT, bringing its grand total to 104. The platform has been used by customers in over 150 countries.

“This past quarter’s growth was the culmination of great commitment from everyone at peerTransfer over the past year. Our goal is to build the peerTransfer solution from the voice of our customers, both our schools and the students,” said Iker Marcaide, peerTransfer CEO in a release. “It has proved to be very successful; especially with the education industry being such a tight knit community, the positive word of mouth endorsement circulating from our partner schools and their international community has been extremely valuable for our growth.”

peerTransfer raised $7.5 million in a Series A round last August, led by Spark Capital, Accel Partners,Maveron and Boston Seed Capital, in addition to $1.1 million in seed funding in 2010.

It’s hard not to root for something that’s making it easier for more students to go to the college of their choice, and that’s lowering the cost in the process. We’re doing a pretty good job drawing international students to the U.S. Our next challenge is reforming our laws so that more of them can stay.