As high school seniors begin to hear back from universities, financial aid packages are slowly rolling out alongside acceptance letters. For those applying under certain majors, however, their federal loans will likely no longer cover the exorbitant cost of college.
On Friday, Jan. 30, the Department of Education announced a plan to raise the requirements of what constitutes a “professional degree.” Under this proposed rule, public health, nursing, social work and another handful of degrees will no longer be a part of this subcategory.
This policy, however, is riddled with several notable inconsistencies.
Students in formerly high-limit programs are now subject to lower federal borrowing limits, causing them to lose eligibility for certain loans. Because these fields are no longer labeled as “professional,” students can no longer borrow money through program-specific loans. As a result, the reclassification effectively penalizes students for a bureaucratic change they had no role in establishing.
Higher Education and Workforce Policy Manager Alex Lundrigan shares his opinions on the reclassification. “Changing the classification of professional degrees creates unnecessary financial and attainment barriers for people seeking health-related degrees,” said Lundrigan in an interview with national advocacy program Young Invincibles. “This rule will impose significant barriers to people obtaining these degrees and deplete the workforce.”
But this alteration affects more than the astronomical prices of post-secondary education. Approximately 82-85% of social workers and 88% of nurses in the United States are women. By capping loans for these fields while maintaining higher limits for male-dominated professions, the rule creates new financial barriers and reduces career mobility for females.
The consequences of the reclassification fall disproportionately on women, a pattern too consistent to be dismissed as a coincidence.
When policymakers exclude these degrees from professional status, it reinforces gender bias and undermines the careers that women have spent decades building. It excessively impacts female-dominated careers and their earned credibility in the workforce, driving a wedge between earned qualification and institutional respect.
Junior Nathaniel Pielak voices his concerns on the policy. “Our colleges are not designed for affordability, and these people in professional degree fields bear the brunt of injustice,” he said. “People in the health fields, like my mom, are the backbone of society; they help our most disadvantaged members all while being undervalued and underrepresented. The changes in professional degree classification serve only to hurt the people in these vital fields while eroding our society’s ability to maintain itself.”
The careers no longer deemed as “professional” unarguably demand great endurance and thorough preparation. Patient care, in particular, requires sophisticated skills that many are not capable of doing; many people lack the empathy, the emotion and the foundational understanding of human connection. Yet, those who work in these environments remain undervalued and denied the recognition they have rightfully earned. They are often looked down on for choosing a path that, in reality, few could ever handle.
Notably, there are a multitude of students at PV who are already employed in the healthcare field. Through the Certified Nurses Aide program offered by Eastern Iowa Community Colleges, sophomores and juniors from the Quad Cities area have taken the initiative to learn more about nursing, compassion and foundational healthcare skills with first-hand opportunities in senior-living facilities.
Pleasant Valley junior and Nurse Aide Idhika Subish expresses her opinions as an experienced female in the healthcare field. “The truth is, anyone can sit there and listen. But, it takes time, patience and practice to truly understand residents’ needs to provide the best possible care for them,” she said. “Every single healthcare related career is a profession worthy of being considered ‘professional.’ Every nation including the U.S would be nothing without its healthcare professionals showing up everyday to help strangers.”
This platform allowed students to not only learn new skills, but also to expand and build on the intrinsic human qualities that are not taught, but cultivated. These careers are nothing short of professional, regardless of the U.S Department of Education classification.
