Judge Halts Narrow Professional Degree Definition in Federal Student Loan Fight

A federal judge has blocked key parts of the Education Department’s narrowed definition of “professional degree,” a ruling that could preserve access to higher federal student loan limits for some graduate students while litigation continues.

U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell found that challengers were likely to succeed in arguing the department exceeded its authority by adding new limits to a definition Congress had already adopted. The ruling does not erase the new loan caps themselves, but it pauses the department’s narrower definition, which had limited the higher professional-student borrowing tier to 11 fields.

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The practical consequence is significant: professional students can borrow up to $200,000 in federal loans, while other graduate students face a $100,000 aggregate cap. Health and education groups argued the narrower rule would hurt students entering fields such as nursing, physician assistant programs, public health, physical therapy, and speech-language pathology.

Professional organizations publicly welcomed the ruling, but uncertainty remains because the Education Department is still reviewing the order and the broader case continues.

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