A few weeks ago, I happened upon a news story about the latest Department of Education (ED) decision to reclassify certain graduate degrees as “nonprofessional.” Unsurprisingly, many people—especially young women—took to social media, railing against the Trump administration’s latest step to roll back the professional distinction for physician assistant programs, advanced nursing degrees, occupational therapy, audiology, and several public health degrees—mostly female-dominated fields. 
 

At first, I was just as confused, wondering why the administration would reclassify a seemingly arbitrary list of degrees while excluding others, what exactly this reclassification meant, and by what authority the ED could do so. 
 

Upon some research, it comes down to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA). That sweeping piece of legislation paved the way for the ED and the Reimagining and Improving Student Education (RISE) committee to tighten the definition of what constitutes a “professional” versus a “nonprofessional” graduate degree program. To be a “professional” degree means that the program qualifies for the highest amount of federal student loans—“nonprofessional” degrees will be capped. The ED stated in a November 24th press release that, “The definition of a ‘professional degree’ 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.” 
 

Prior to the new definition proposed by the RISE committee, “the federal definition in the Higher Education Act served more as a guideline for colleges as they decided whether to self-identify their doctoral programs as professional and to distinguish between degrees that led to a career in the field or in academia,” says an Inside Higher Ed article. Thus, the new definition gives clear parameters to colleges and universities going forward—hopefully curbing the creation of degree programs merely for the sake of bringing in more students paying for degrees with inordinate amounts of federal loans.  
 

A “professional” degree will now be determined by the following:
 

• Signify that students have the skills to begin practice in a particular profession 
• Require a level of skill beyond that of a bachelor’s degree 
• Be a doctoral level degree (with the exception of a Master’s in Divinity) 
• Require at least six years of academic instruction (at least two of which are post-baccalaurette) 
• Involve a profession that requires licensure 
• Be included in the same four-digit CIP code as one of 11 professions explicitly mentioned in the regulation

The OBBBA will completely scrap the Grad PLUS program and limit Parent PLUS loans in favor of the Repayment Assistance Plan (RAP), which will cap annual loans for graduate students at $20,500 and at $50,000 for professional students—aggregate graduate loan limits will be $100,000 and $200,000 respectively. This is where the new standard of a “professional” degree comes in. The narrowly defined “professional” degree qualifications will effectively shrink graduate degrees eligible for larger federal loans from roughly 2,000 to less than 600 by July 1, 2026. 
 

What will this accomplish?
 

It is well documented how the price of college tuition has dramatically increased. NPR reports the cost has essentially doubled when adjusted for inflation over the last 30 years, and the ED found that graduate program loans made up a large percentage of the total student loan debt. This phenomenon can largely be attributed to institutions themselves inflating the cost due to duplicative administrative roles, bloated and unnecessary departments and positions, among other things. Now, the ED notes that “since 2007, graduate and professional students have been able to borrow up to the full cost of attendance. This has allowed colleges and universities to dramatically increase tuition rates, even for credentials with modest earnings potential, which has saddled too many borrowers with debts they find difficult to repay”—echoing the argument we made in our report Priced Out, published in 2021. Over the years, colleges and universities have seized on an endless stream of federal money and virtually limitless subsidies, with little to no incentive to control costs. Hopefully by restricting the number of designated “professional” programs that can receive federal funding, colleges and universities should be incentivized to start cutting down tuition rates, or risk losing attending students.
 

Of course, graduate loans are not the only program facing scrutiny by the ED. ED is also working on rolling out the Workforce Pell Grant program. 
 

With a July 1, 2026 deadline looming to implement policy changes under the OBBBA, the ED has announced a meeting agenda to discuss the new Workforce Pell program, with the hope of reaching a final agreement by this Friday—much to the concern of some policy experts and members of the committee itself. Typically, an advisory committee, which includes ED representatives, meets for weeks of negotiations before taking next steps to implement policy decisions. But this week, the committee is attempting to wrap up negotiations without time away to think through the proposal or talk with constituents. We’ll see how this process plays out, especially because the Workforce Pell is a brand new program, aimed to provide need-based financial aid for short-term job training certificates. 
 

Long-term affordability will not improve by mere capping of federal funding to colleges and universities. The administration's move to cap student loans on the whole is a good first step to lower the amount taxpayers put out for students. The next best step will be to put colleges and universities on the hook for defaulted student loans, along with a substantial amount of the total loan percentage—something policymakers have toyed with but never followed through on. For now, the ED’s actions are moving reform in the right direction. As the new year looms, and the ED attempts to disband itself while rolling out high priority OBBBA changes, we will continue to closely monitor the policy changes pertaining to higher education and the lasting implications of them. 
 

Until next week.

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