Education master’s degrees were not included in the Education Department’s updated list of 29 professional programs.
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More than a week after the Department of Education expanded the list of degree programs eligible for higher loan limits after the One Big Beautiful Bill Act took effect on July 1, several trade associations and legal experts say the latest expansion is not enough.
The expanded list followed a federal district court order that temporarily stayed the department’s more narrow definition. Now ED has deemed 29 programs professional, up from 11—including health-care fields like nursing and physician assistantship (both of which had trade associations that sued the department over its definition). Other degrees for careers in education, social work, accounting and architecture still did not make the cut.
Advocates representing those programs say that while the judge gave the department authority to write the updated list, the court order also laid out clear instructions for how it should be done. And from their perspective, ED didn’t follow those directions. But the trade associations aren’t giving up without a fight and hope to use legislation or further litigation to ensure their students can get access to the $50,000 annual limit for professional programs, rather than the $20,500 limit for all other graduate degrees.
