It happened last summer. Little-known, proposed rule changes that would impact students seeking advanced degrees and how they pay for them were ushered in when Congress passed its sweeping budget bill last year. Now, in early 2026, the U.S. Department of Education (ED) is poised to change which college degrees are classified as “professional” programs and impose strict, new federal loan eligibility rules, including capping how much graduate students can borrow to pursue advanced degrees, mostly in the health fields.
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It happened last summer. Little-known, proposed rule changes that would impact students seeking advanced degrees and how they pay for them were ushered in when Congress passed its sweeping budget bill last year. Now, in early 2026, the U.S. Department of Education (ED) is poised to change which college degrees are classified as “professional” programs and impose strict, new federal loan eligibility rules, including capping how much graduate students can borrow to pursue advanced degrees, mostly in the health fields.
Kathy Luangrath
At the close of 2025, ED’s list of 11 designated “professional” degree programs included theology, pharmacy, medicine, law, dentistry, veterinary medicine, podiatry, and clinical psychology. Multiple graduate programs, noticeably nursing, have been excluded from the “professional degree” list that also includes public health, social work, architecture, and accounting.
These degree classifications are tied to recent student loan reforms. According to the Department of Education, that means students enrolled in a recognized “professional” degree program like law, medicine, and theology will qualify for a higher federal loan limit — $200,000 over the lifetime of their education, but no more than $50,000 annually. For nursing and other degree programs classified as “non-professional,” students will have a proposed annual borrowing cap of $20,500 with a lifetime limit of $100,000.
The cost of attending medical school is pricey. Most medical school students rely on federal loans to finance their education, which recently “surpassed $275,000 at over half of all medical schools and exceeded $350,000 at 19 schools,” by the time they graduated, the Association of American Medical Colleges found. In July, ED loan changes are expected to kick in just as the federal borrowing program known as Grad PLUS will stop issuing new student loans.
From her home in Washington State, Kathy Luangrath wrapped up the first semester of her three-year, online, doctoral program in public health at New York Medical College. In December, she was also making plans to post a video reel on Instagram in opposition to the upcoming ED degree and loan changes — and in solidarity with the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health’s “Public Health is a Professional Degree” campaign.
Having earned master’s degrees in social work and public health, “I hope I won’t hit the new [federal loan borrowing] threshold, says Luangrath. As a first-generation college student, “I sought a lot of money to help me get through school, over the years.” For now, the tuition benefits she receives as a state public health worker, Luangrath adds, have been her saving grace, yet such benefits do not cover all her education costs. But she knows friends and other aspiring, first-generation students who want careers in public health and other health professions who may not be so fortunate if new loan regulations kick in and sideline their pursuits.
As a person of color, says Luangrath, a first-generation Lao American, “I see these upcoming changes as a much bigger issue than professional and graduate degrees. It’s about equity,” especially for students from low-income backgrounds and students of color. The federal rules, which could price some students out, “signal who gets to lead and who doesn’t.”
For others, the reclassification of degrees and new loan ceilings have been met with disbelief, alarm, and backlash, sparking everything from advocacy and information campaigns to social media memes from organizations whose leaders and stakeholders say they feel slighted and dismayed but are no less professional. In letters to policymakers and with petitions, many have registered their concern that the ripple effect of these federal changes could worsen critical workforce shortages in sectors like nursing, derail academic dreams, and cripple access and equity in higher education. Pushing back, ED officials described the changes as “a technical and regulatory decision, rather than a value judgment about the importance of programs … and has “no bearing on whether a program is professional in nature or not.”
For future architects and design professionals, ED’s rule changes will not only impact students, but could impact how and where people dwell, Jose Gamez, the president of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA), told the Architect’s Newspaper, a leading industry publication. “The ACSA strongly opposes the Department of Education’s proposed exclusion of architecture from its list of professional degrees — B.Arch., M.Arch., D.Arch. This move limits access to student loans, and it will compound a range of issues that affect the quality of our homes, towns, and cities,” said Gamez.
Touting the profession’s “rigorous education, licensure requirements, and life-long learning that prepare architects for the responsibilities of protecting the health, safety, and welfare not only of their clients but of the public at large,” Gamez said, moving forward, the nation’s leading professional organization for architects and design professionals “will advocate for a more considered approach to the needs of the public and reaffirm the importance of professional programs in architecture and design.”
The Department of Education is expected to implement its proposed measures starting July 1. In the meantime, educators, students, and practitioners across disciplines are waiting for any possible changes from ED — and they are taking action. Rancor from the nursing field has been resounding.
“Nurses make up the largest segment of the healthcare workforce and the backbone of our nation’s health system,” said Dr. Jennifer Mensik Kennedy, president of the American Nurses Association, in a recent statement. “At a time when healthcare in our country faces a historic nurse shortage and rising demands, limiting nurses’ access to funding for graduate education threatens the very foundation of patient care.”
Learning late last year that the doctorate degree she earned in nursing two decades ago will now be classified as “non-professional” by the federal government was at first “shocking” to Dr. Joan S. Tilghman, dean of Coppin State University’s College of Health Professions in Baltimore, Md.
Tilghman says that ED’s plans to exclude nursing are nonsensical. Tilghman vows to stay vigilant and “keep our faculty and students in the loop” about the degree and loan changes to come. But in the meantime, Tilghman says she will stay focused on preparing aspiring nurses at Coppin State, an Historically Black university, and those “earning advanced nursing degrees,” for the professional roles they will assume after graduation.
