A negotiating committee convened by the U.S. Department of Education (USDE) agreed to a recent proposal that excludes education from being considered a “professional degree,” according to the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators. A lowered cap on federal student loans available to certain graduate students was approved in the “One Big, Beautiful Bill,” which established the term “professional degrees” to be used internally by the agency to distinguish programs that qualify for higher student loan limits, according to a USDE fact sheet released November 24, 2025. The law also directed the USDE to identify “professional degree” programs that will be eligible for the higher federal lending limits, which resulted in education being omitted.
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