Update on Comments to Department of Ed on issue of Definition of Professional Degree and Related Issues
On February 27, 2026 the New England Council submitted comments to the Department of Education on the Department of Education’s recent Reimagining and Improving Student Education proposed rule. Our comment letter included our concerns about the recent reconciliation package which made significant changes to federal graduate lending, which NEC members believe will exacerbate workforce shortages in key professions, primarily in the healthcare sector, across the United States, and especially rural areas.
We were concerned that the Department of Education seeks to narrowly define “professional” degree as only applying to 11 programs: Medicine, Dentistry, Veterinary Medicine, Law, Pharmacy, Optometry, Podiatry, Chiropractic, Theology, Osteopathic Medicine, and Clinical Psychology. This left out many critical programs. We advocated to ensure the definition of “professional” is flexible enough to meet the nation’s workforce needs. As a result of our efforts and others, additional degrees were added to the definition of professional degree. The included degrees are now the following: veterinary medicine; law; divinity/ministry; rabbinical studies; clinical psychology; counseling psychology; school psychology; clinical child psychology; health/medical psychology; family psychology; forensic psychology; clinical, counseling and applied psychology; chiropractic; audiology; speech-language pathology; dentistry; anesthesiologist assistant; physician associate/assistant, athletic training; medicine; osteopathic medicine; podiatry; optometry; pharmacy; occupational therapy; physical therapy; registered nursing; nurse anesthetist; and nursing practice.
Our letter can be read here, and you can read more about the update here.