School of Nursing and Health Professions
Dear SONHP students,
Please read the following regarding the Department of Education's final rule on graduate student loans. It continues to exclude masters and doctoral nursing and public health degrees from the definition of "professional degree" programs.
As the AACN announced, on the eve of National Nurses Week, the Department of Education released its unpublished final rule, set to take effect on July 1, 2026, that excludes nursing from its definition of professional degree programs. Despite thousands of comments from the nursing community and the public, pushback from more than 150 bipartisan members of Congress, and a demonstrated need for nurses across the healthcare workforce, the Department of Education has made it clear that it does not consider nursing to be a professional degree.
Other responses are:
The National League for Nursing opposes the U.S. Department of Education’s decision not to classify nursing as a professional degree. This action would deny nursing students the opportunity to obtain higher graduate student loan amounts they may need to complete their education, and it would also do nothing to address the nation’s nursing shortage. Indeed, it could make it worse by making nursing a less attractive career path.
The American Nurses Association (ANA) is profoundly dismayed by the Department of Education’s exclusion of nursing from the definition of “professional degree” programs under the finalized federal graduate loan borrowing limits.
With this final rule, the Department of Education ignores the voices of over 245,000 nurses and nurse advocates who signed ANA’s RNAction petition and the tens of thousands of comments submitted during the public comment period earlier this year.
The Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health
Federal Student Loan Changes Raise Concerns for Public Health Workforce Pipeline
The U.S. Department of Education (ED) has reversed earlier guidance on graduate student borrowing, announcing that Grad PLUS loans will now count toward a new lifetime federal loan limit of $257,500. At the same time, the field awaits a forthcoming decision on how “professional degree programs” will be defined under ED’s RISE final rule. Together, these developments introduce significant uncertainty for graduate education and raise concerns about access to financing for public health students.
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USF SONHP strongly disagrees with the Department of Education’s rule, which will undermine students’ ability to finance advanced education in nursing and public health. This exclusion from the professional degree category will directly affect the nation's healthcare workforce.
This policy change threatens to further aggravate the expected shortage of nursing faculty and advanced practice nurses in the coming years, significantly impacting healthcare delivery.
We will continue working with our students to address the impact of this decision.
We encourage you to advocate by following and participating in the advocacy efforts of the professional associations listed above. More information on pending legislative and judicial actions will be shared as it becomes available.
In service,
Dean Eileen
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