In a move that has ignited fiercebacklashfromthenursing community, the Trump administration has excluded nursing,alongwithphysician assistant, nurse practitioner and physical therapy programs, from its list of federally designated “professional degrees,” fundamentally altering how much future students can borrow.
The shift stems from sweeping student-loan reforms rolled out under President Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill,” signed into law in July 2025. Under the new law, graduate students in traditional master’s or doctoral programs face a lifetime borrowing cap of $100,000, and annual borrowing is limited to $20,500.
For students in programs that are still classed as “professional” such as medicine, law, pharmacy and theology, the cap goes up to $200,000 over a lifetime, and they may borrow as much as $50,000 per year. Crucially, nursing programs were dropped from that professional category.
The rationale offered by the Department of Education draws on a 1965 federal definition of “professional degree,” claiming that nursing does not meet the historical license or academic thresholds for inclusion. The administration also eliminated the Grad PLUS loan program, a key source of aid for many graduate and professional students, effective July 1, 2026.
The fallout has been swift. TheAmericanNursesAssociation (ANA)issuedascathing critique, arguing that limiting access to federal funds for advanced nursing education will worsen an already critical nursing shortage.
Nursing educators warn the change could dissuade students from pursuing master’s and doctoral degrees, or even from entering nursing altogether,atamomentwhen demand for highly trained nurses is surging.
Meanwhile, the “One Big Beautiful Bill” reworks repayment options as well. It consolidates federal income- basedrepaymentplans into two: a fixed-payment “Standard Plan” over 10–25 years, and a new Repayment AssistancePlan(RAP)where payments range from 1 to 10 percent of adjusted gross income over a 30-year term.
The move to phase out previous repayment plans and eliminate certain deferment options, especially for economic hardship, has raised concerns among borrowers. Advocates also fear that the cap on loans and redefinition of professional degrees could shift the burden of funding graduate nursing education from federal loans to private markets, where students may face steeper interest rates and fewer borrower protections.
Inpublicstatements,ANA leaders have urged a reversal of the decision, calling on the Department of Education to recognize nursing as the essential profession it is and to preserve access to critical federal student loan programs. As implementation looms in mid-2026, the changes promise to reshape not only how future nurses finance their education but potentially the very makeup of the country’s healthcare workforce.