By Andrea Stevens
AFRO Staff Writer
astevens@afro.com
The Department of Education will no longer classify several long-recognized graduate programs as professional degrees, a shift that will affect financial aid limits and reshape how universities describe advanced training in fields that rely on licensing.
The updated definition removes nursing from the government’s professional degree category. The change will apply to federal student aid policies beginning with the 2026 fiscal year. Programs that remain classified as professional degrees will include medicine, dentistry, law and veterinary medicine. Degrees that fall outside the list will be categorized as academic graduate programs rather than professional ones.
“Nurses comprise the largest component of the healthcare workforce, are the primary providers of hospital patient care, and deliver most of the nation’s long-term care,” according to a study published in 2024 by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN). “17.4 percent of the nation’s registered nurses held a master’s degree and 2.7 percent held a doctoral degree as their highest educational preparation.”
State licensing rules for nurses will not be affected because those standards are set by independent boards.
Nurses on the ground said the change ignores the worsening shortage of trained providers. Keira Wise, a perinatal nurse, said the ruling could discourage students who might already struggle to pay for graduate school.
“It breaks my heart,” Wise said. “We already don’t have enough nurses. The nurse to patient ratio is overwhelming and we are burned out. To take funding away is going to hurt us in a major way.”
In addition to reclassifying nursing degrees, the U.S. Department of Education also announced a change in loan limits. “A negotiating committee convened by the agency has proposed a consensus definition that designates Medicine (M.D.), Dentistry (D.D.S./D.M.D.), Law (L.L.B./J.D.), and several other high-cost programs as eligible for a $200,000 borrowing limit,” the agency stated in a press release. “Students who pursue a degree in other graduate or doctoral programs would be capped at $100,000 in federal loans.”
(Photo Credit: Unsplash / Hush Naidoo Jade Photography)
Wise said she is especially worried about how the new classification will impact loan and grant limits for students who come from low-income or marginalized communities.
“It affects people who don’t have anything to fall back on,” she said. “If you put a cap on funding, people in the ghetto who want to be nurses will rethink what they want to do. We are role models. People want to be nurses.”
Legal advocates said the consequences could extend beyond nursing and harm communities that rely on accessible professional education. Lauren Corbin, a public defense attorney, said financial barriers created by reclassification tend to fall hardest on Black students and others who lack generational wealth.
“For people who already face systemic disadvantages it becomes another hurdle,” Corbin said. “Students from Black communities make decisions based on cost. When the price goes up they get pushed out before they even have a chance.”
Corbin said the shift could also reduce the number of professionals who return to serve in the neighborhoods where they grew up.
“If you limit who can afford these degrees you limit who ends up back in our communities providing care and support,” she said. “That loss affects everyone.”
Education officials said the update is not a judgment on the rigor or social value of nursing. Universities, student groups and professional organizations plan to submit comments before the rule is finalized next year.