United States, November 23, 2025: The U.S. Department of Education has finalized new student loan regulations that exclude nursing from the definition of "professional degree" programs, sparking alarm across the healthcare sector. This decision is a part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) which will significantly limit federal loan access for graduate nursing students starting July 2026, according to a press release by U.S. Department of Education on November 6, 2025.
On July 4, 2025, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) was signed into law, resulting in changes to federal student aid programs. Some of these changes went into effect immediately, while others will go into effect next year and beyond.
Under the revised framework, the Department has created two tiers of graduate students:
For "Professional Degree" Programs:
Annual borrowing limit: $50,000
Aggregate borrowing limit: $200,000
For All Other Graduate Programs:
Annual borrowing limit: $20,500
Aggregate borrowing limit: $100,000
The changes also eliminate the Grad PLUS program, which previously allowed graduate students to borrow up to their full cost of attendance, which led institutions to offer expensive graduate programs with a negative return on investment.
Nursing
Physician assistants
Physical therapists
Audiologists
Architects
Accountants
Educators
Social workers
Medicine
Pharmacy
Dentistry
Optometry
Law
Veterinary medicine
Osteopathic medicine
Podiatry
Chiropractic
Theology
Clinical psychology
The Department of Education's RISE Committee (formally, the Reimagining and Improving Student Education Committee) defined professional degree programs using four specific criteria:
Academic rigor: Programs signifying completion of requirements for beginning professional practice and demonstrating skill beyond that normally required for a bachelor's degree
Duration: Doctoral-level programs requiring six or more years of postsecondary study
Professional licensure requirement
Classification: Programs must fall within the same four-digit Classification of Instructional Programs (CIP) codes as medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, law, and theology and related fields.
Despite nursing being classified under CIP code series 51 for "health professions," it is not considered "in the same intermediate group" as the specifically enumerated fields.
The CIP code series 51 refers to "Health Professions and Related Programs" within the U.S. Department of Education's Classification of Instructional Programs (CIP) taxonomy.
This technical exclusion means that Master of Science in Nursing (MSN), Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP), and PhD in Nursing programs are now categorized as standard graduate programs rather than professional programs.
Following the November 7 press release, leading nursing organizations swiftly voiced their concerns about the policy change.
Dr. Jennifer Mensik Kennedy, President of the American Nurses Association, in a statement released by American Nurse Association on November 10, 2025, emphasized the stakes that : "Nurses make up the largest segment of the healthcare workforce and the backbone of our nation's health system. At a time when healthcare faces a historic nurse shortage and rising demands, limiting nurses' access to funding for graduate education threatens the very foundation of patient care."
The ANA has called on the Department of Education to revise its definition of "professional degree" to explicitly include nursing education pathways. The organization emphasizes that ensuring robust support for nursing education is essential to the future of safe, quality care delivery.
AACN stated in a notice that: "Our post-baccalaureate nursing graduates are independent providers, systems leaders, and researchers who deliver critical care and drive innovation across communities. Excluding nursing from the definition of professional degree programs disregards decades of progress toward parity across the health professions."
AACN also emphasized that explicitly including post-baccalaureate nursing education as professional is essential for strengthening the nation’s healthcare workforce, supporting the next generation of nurses, and ultimately supporting the healthcare of patients in communities across the country.
The Department of Education framed these changes as part of efforts to "place commonsense limits and guardrails on future student loan borrowing and to simplify the federal student loan repayment system" and to combat what it described as "expensive graduate programs with a negative return on investment."
(Rh/VK)
