Advocacy Alert: Protect Pathways to Post-Baccalaureate Nursing Education
Posted about 7 hours ago by Amanda Lee in Legislative Update
This announcement has 1 attachment:
Sources
For additional background information, please reference the following links:
- https://www.ed.gov/about/news/press-release/us-department-of-education-concludes-negotiated-rulemaking-session-implement-one-big-beautiful-bill-acts-loan-provisions
- https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2025/11/21/what-considered-professional-degree-explained/87396245007/#:~:text=Pharmacy%20(Pharm.D.),.Div.%2C%20or%20M.H.L.)
- https://www.newsweek.com/full-list-degrees-professional-trump-administration-11085695
- https://www.highereddive.com/news/end-of-grad-plus-loans-impact-higher-ed/760448/
Under the terms of the One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB) Act, a Repayment Assistance Plan (RAP) will to replace previous loan programs and the Grad PLUS program, designed to help graduate and professional students cover educational expenses, will be eliminated effective July 2026 for new borrowers. The "new and simplified" RAP will see annual loans for new borrowers capped at $20,500 for graduate students and $50,000 for professional students.
This means that what degrees count as professional and non-professional is now a determining factor in how much financial support students will receive. The U.S. Department of Education has recently updated its definition of "professional degree" to include medicine, pharmacy, dentistry, optometry, law, veterinary medicine, osteopathic medicine, podiatry, chiropractic, theology, and clinical psychology. Degrees that were previously considered professional including nursing, other health, education and social work fields are now excluded under the new definition.