Hello and welcome back to The Markup, Inside Higher Ed’s weekly roundup of all things higher ed policy. I’m your host, Jessica Blake, IHE’s federal policy reporter.
I hope you had a good holiday. I spent the last week in Disney World with my family, and I hear a few things might have happened while I was on vacation. The Supreme Court upheld state bans on trans athletes in women’s sports and the Justice Department sued another two states over their in-state tuition policies. Meanwhile, the Education Department expanded the list of professional degrees and finalized a new accountability measure.
And while a slew of new rules took effect July 1, the Education Department is wasting no time in gearing up for more rule changes. The department’s ambitious regulatory agenda for the next year includes wrapping up accreditation-related regulations, as well as addressing culture war issues like defining sex; eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion programs; and cracking down on foreign funding in education.
The Big Story
The fight over loan caps and which programs are considered professional took center stage over the last two weeks. The caps took effect July 1, ushering in a new era for graduate education.
But as we discussed in the last edition, a federal judge blocked the Education Department’s professional definition and directed the agency to use Congress’s definition to determine which programs are eligible for the higher loan caps ($50K for a year and $200K over all, while all other graduate students are limited to $20,500 a year and $100K over all.)
The Education Department intends to appeal the court ruling but hasn’t yet. But, in response to the court orders,Trump officials did release a list of 29 programs that are now considered professional. While nursing and other health-care degrees made the cut, others like social work and education didn’t. Advocates for those programs and others are planning to still fight for access to the higher loan caps.
Moving forward, a key question for institutions is whether to use a new authority to limit how much students can borrow. The Education Department encouraged institutions to prevent students in the new professional programs from borrowing up to the cap, since those students might be in a bind if ED prevails in court. While some higher ed groups aren’t advising institutions either way on what they should do, some faculty and administrators in fields on the expanded list of professional programs say institutions shouldn’t limit lending.
“To me, this fear of the unknown—the problem is today,” said Michael Roscoe, director of the University of Tampa’s physician assistant program and president of the Physician Assistant Education Association. “The students’ need is today. Our health-care access is a today problem. If we pulled back … that is absolutely going to reduce the workforce,” he said. “We don’t know what the future holds. We know today, it’s $50,000.”
How is your institution grappling with the shifting definition of professional programs? Let us know.
