With just days left before stricter federal loan caps were set to slam into graduate students, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., on June 25 temporarily blocked key parts of the Education Department’s new definition of “professional degree.” The ruling bumps many graduate nursing programs back into the higher federal loan tier, while nudging some theology courses into a lower cap. The timing matters: the original definition was scheduled to kick in July 1 under last year’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, and students and programs had warned that the narrower rule could force them to pause or rethink enrollment.
As reported by The Associated Press, the Education Department responded this week with a revised, temporary rule meant to comply with Judge Beryl Howell’s order, while making clear it still intends to defend its original definition in court. In a statement to AP, Undersecretary Nicholas Kent said the department “will continue to make the case that the definition is both lawful and appropriate.” Officials also warned colleges that the updated list of programs could change again as the lawsuit moves forward.
Judge's reasoning and the standard
Judge Howell concluded that the department had layered on extra, stricter criteria that Congress never signed off on, including treating what was supposed to be an illustrative list of degrees as if it were exhaustive and insisting on doctoral-level training and six years of coursework. Her opinion instructs the agency, for now, to fall back to the previous three-part regulatory test while the case is litigated. As detailed by Inside Higher Ed, Howell flagged those elements of the rule as legally problematic and effectively restored the older standard for deciding which credentials count as “professional.”
Who gains and who loses
Under the department’s temporary fix, a wide range of health and allied-health programs regain or secure “professional” status. That list includes master of science in nursing, doctor of nursing practice, doctor of nurse anesthesia practice, and programs in physical therapy, athletic training, speech-language pathology, physician associates and anesthesiologist assistants. At the same time, some theology tracks were shifted off the higher-cap list, although the master of divinity keeps its place in the top borrowing tier. These program moves were laid out in the department’s notice to institutions, according to The Associated Press.
Loan caps in play
Federal law splits graduate borrowing into tiers. Programs classified as professional can tap an aggregate cap of roughly $200,000 in federal loans, while other graduate programs are held to about $100,000. The statute also draws a line on yearly amounts, often described as roughly $50,000 per year for professional students compared with about $20,500 for other graduate borrowers, with the department’s own materials spelling out the aggregate limits in more detail. For background and the department’s explainer, see the U.S. Department of Education and reporting in The Washington Post.
Legal implications
The court’s stay freezes two pieces of the RISE final rule: the department’s new part (i) definition and the preamble’s “free-from-supervision” requirement. The underlying loan caps in the statute stay in place, and the order applies nationwide. Colleges and universities were urged to check with their attorneys, since this is emergency relief rather than a final ruling on the merits, and both sides still have to submit a proposed schedule for the next phase of the case. As NASFAA explains, the stay will remain in effect until the court reaches a final decision, and the department retains the option to seek an appeal.
Nursing organizations that had blasted the original exclusion of their degrees say the ruling backs up their warnings about damage to an already strained workforce. The American Association of Colleges of Nursing had previously labeled the rule “arbitrary and capricious.” Physician-assistant groups, in a joint statement noted in The Washington Post, called the injunction “an important step.” Hoodline followed the uproar when the rule first dropped in November, in coverage headlined Snubs Nurses From Professional List, and that early backlash helps explain why this temporary reprieve now looms so large over staffing plans and tuition calculations.
