The U.S. Department of Education’s (USDE) professional degree definition is now being challenged in court as 25 states and the District of Columbia sued the USDE on May 19, 2026 for excluding graduate nursing and other major fields, including education. The plaintiffs, led by Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown, said in a May 19th statement that the rule “unlawfully excludes many degree programs that qualify under the standards established by federal law, potentially reducing access to financial aid for students pursuing advanced education.”
The lawsuit also alleges that the USDE illegally changed an existing federal definition of “professional degree” that Congress incorporated into law. Those alterations included adding new requirements and narrowing the eligibility in a manner that Congress never authorized.
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