The U.S. Department of Education has made significant changes to degrees classified as professional. Professional degrees, including nursing, education, social work and physician assistants, have been excluded from the list of professional degrees. These changes have already sparked outrage amongst many and continue to cause tension.
The change stems from President Donald Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which requires the Education Department to identify degree programs that are considered professional. The goal of this distinction is to limit the complicated student loan repayment system. Degrees classified as professional qualify to pursue higher amounts of student loans and higher federal lending limits.
Non-professional degrees are limited to a lower amount of student loans, which the Education Department explains is intended for students not to take out more than they can repay, effectively saving them from going into extensive debt.
For students seeking a professional degree, as defined by the Education Department, loan limits are capped at $50,000 per year with a $200,000 lifetime limit. For non-professional degrees, students are allowed to take $20,500 in loans annually, with a $100,000 lifetime limit. These changes take effect July 2026 and only affect graduate students, leaving undergraduate students unaffected.
Secretary of Education Nicholas Kent spoke about the changes made by the OBBA.
“The consensus language agreed upon by the negotiators today will help drive a sea change in higher education by holding universities accountable for outcomes and putting significant downward pressure on the cost of tuition,” Kent said. “This will benefit borrowers who will no longer be pushed into insurmountable debt to finance degrees that do not pay off.”
The classifications made by the Education Department of professional and non-professional programs sparked outrage across the country as degrees such as nursing, education, social work, accounting, architecture and audiology are no longer considered professional degrees.
Multiple nursing organizations, such as the National League of Nursing and the Emergency Nurses Association, came together to create a petition calling out the Education Department on its decision. The petition now has over 200,000 signatures.
The American Nurses Association released a statement detailing its concern over the exclusion of nursing from the list of professional degrees. The ANA said this decision will “severely restrict access to critical funding for graduate nursing education, undermining efforts to grow and sustain the nursing workforce.”
Although the Education Department cites this decision as a way to limit students from going into debt, placing a cap on the amount of loans students can take out may have the exact opposite effect.
Students pursuing a higher degree in a field such as nursing are already facing high tuition costs and may carry over student loans from undergraduate programs. Students are now excluded from financial benefits because they are not considered to be pursuing a professional degree.
Students from low-income areas or economically disadvantaged backgrounds are significantly affected. They may even be deterred from pursuing a graduate degree due to the limited ability to take out higher amounts of student loans.
According to the Education Department, the definition of professional degrees is, “an internal definition used by the Department to distinguish among programs that qualify for higher loan limits, not a value judgement about the importance of programs. It has no bearing on whether a program is professional in nature or not.”
Each field excluded from the list of professional degrees is a public service field, as each field works directly with people to educate, serve and heal them. It’s entirely discouraging that the Education Department has listed these specific degrees as unprofessional, especially as the nation faces shortages in their professions.
The U.S. has a nursing shortage, with a projected 78,000 registered nurses deficit by the end of this year. It’s only projected to continue. By 2035, 42 U.S. states are still expected to face shortages, some projected to only meet 84% of their needed RN workforce. A survey of nurses in Ohio found 38.83% of nurses believe their unit is rarely staffed adequately. This is a jarring statistic coming from those dedicated to saving lives.
Meanwhile, teachers, who are also not considered professional degree holders, face nationwide shortages, as there are over 400,000 teaching positions across the country unfilled or filled by unqualified employees without teaching degrees.
Graduate degrees are needed for professions across the country. Student loan caps put into place by the Education Department only limit students further from pursuing professional degrees, especially those who may be coming from economically disadvantaged backgrounds, who now face an extreme lack of funding.
Limiting the amount of loans future nurses, teachers, speech pathologists and physical therapists can take out only increases the national shortage of these critical professions.
The Post editorials are independent of the publication's news coverage. The Post can be reached via editor@thepostathens.com.
