Higher Ed Dive
Anna Merod
July 2, 2026
The designation comes with an increased federal student loan cap of $200,000 for graduate programs.
Dive Brief:
- Education graduate degree programs remain excluded from the U.S. Department of Education’s “professional” designation, despite the agency recently adding to the fields considered as such. That expansion came in response to a recent court order that temporarily blocked new regulations on the “professional” definition, which impacts federal student loan caps.
- The Education Department’s regulations determine which graduate degree programs are considered “professional” that receive up to $200,000 in federal student loans under limits created by Congress last year. However, other programs that don’t fall under that definition — including education — are capped at $100,000 in federal student loans.
- Some of the graduate programs added to the department’s list of “professional” degrees, as of June 29, include nursing, physical therapy, athletic training and occupational therapy.