A proposal from the Trump administration would exclude nursing from a list of professional degrees, a move that has drawn outcry from nursing advocates, who warn it could worsen the nation’s nurse shortage by limiting how much students can borrow for their training.
The change stems from changes authorized by the Republicans’ “one big, beautiful bill” act, which introduced a new cap on borrowing for higher education. Starting July 1, 2026, students enrolled in professional degree programs will be restricted to borrowing $50,000 per year, with a $200,000 lifetime cap.
Students in graduate programs that aren’t deemed professional will be subject to an annual borrowing cap of $20,500 and a lifetime limit of $100,000.
Nursing professionals say they’re alarmed by the proposed rule’s definition of what constitutes a professional degree, which lists some medical fields, including pharmacy, dentistry and medical doctors, but doesn’t include nursing. Capping loans for nursing students could ultimately restrict students’ access to enrolling in degree programs at a time when the industry is already grappling with a shortage of nurses, they say.
The proposal would create “obstacles for students who want to pursue advanced degrees, which would most likely lead to decreased students pursuing degrees in nursing,” Kim Litwack, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee School of Nursing, told CBS News. “That means there will be less of these professionals joining the workforce.”
In a statement issued earlier this month, the Education Department said the proposal creates a new definition of a professional student to determine who qualifies for the higher loan limits.
The goal of the changes, including the new loan caps, is to ensure that borrowers won’t face “insurmountable debt to finance degrees that do not pay off,” said Under Secretary of Education Nicholas Kent in the statement.
In an email to CBS News, the Education Department said 95% of nursing students won’t be impacted by the borrowing cap.
“As for the most expensive outlying 5%, enrolled students are grandfathered into current lending limits to ensure there are no barriers to completion,” said Ellen Keast, the press secretary for higher education at the agency. “We expect that institutions charging tuition rates well above market prices will consider lowering tuition thanks to these historic reforms.”
What’s a professional degree?
Under the Education Department’s proposal, a professional degree is one that “signifies both completion of the academic requirements for beginning practice in a given profession, and a level of professional skill beyond that normally required for a bachelor’s degree.”
The department also said in a fact sheet that its definition of a professional degree is used to distinguish programs that qualify for higher loan limits from one another, and is “not a value judgement about the importance of programs.”
The programs that it defines as professional include: pharmacy, dentistry, veterinary medicine, chiropractic, law, medicine, optometry, osteopathic medicine, podiatry and theology. Students in degree programs that aren’t considered professional — such as those in nursing, physical therapy and physician assistant degrees — would have lower loan caps under the proposed rule.
Other groups representing professions that were excluded under the proposal also issued objections, such as the Council on Social Work Education, which said it was “disheartened and concerned.” The American Academy of Audiology pointed out that audiology isn’t included, which it said could discourage students from pursuing careers in the field.
Nursing’s exclusion from the list of professional degree programs “makes no sense,” said Jennifer Mensik Kennedy, president of the American Nurses Association.
In addition to lowering the loan cap, the “big, beautiful bill” law also eliminates the Grad PLUS program that allows graduate students to borrow up to the full cost of obtaining a degree.
Kennedy and other nursing industry advocates who disagree with the omission of nursing as a professional degree are hopeful the proposal could be changed before it’s adopted.
“It feels like a miscommunication, and we hope the Department of Education changes the proposed language before the rule comes out for public comment. They did add professions to the list before it was released, so they could have added nurses, which clearly belong,” she said.
The Education Department said the proposal will be published in the Federal Register, although it didn’t specify a date, and will be open for public comment.
“A real gut punch”
Olga Yakusheva, an economist and professor at Johns Hopkins School of Nursing, said limiting how much money nursing students can borrow could curb entry into the field.
“It’s going to limit the ability of nurses to apply for graduate school, and on the back end, it will limit the number of nurses available in primary care settings and in hospitals,” she said. “Communities with shortages of physicians will feel this the most.”
Patricia Pittman, a professor of health policy and management at George Washington University’s Milken Institute School of Public Health, said nurses fill critical medical care gaps in rural communities. The rule could create financial barriers that she says would disincentivize nurses from seeking advanced licensing, which ultimately could harm rural areas.
“Basically, nobody would be there if it weren’t for these nurse practitioners,” she told CBS News.
Pittman also says it will have a negative effect on morale within the nursing profession.
“It’s a real gut punch, and the result nurses are going to be angry about this,” she said.