Which specific degrees did the Education Department under Secretary Betsy DeVos remove from the ‘professional’ classification?
Executive summary
The Department of Education under Secretary Betsy DeVos did not, in her time (2017–2021), publish a wholesale reclassification removing specific degrees from a “professional degree” list; contemporary reporting and later 2025 coverage describe a Department proposal under a subsequent administration that would exclude many programs—including nursing (MSN, DNP), education master’s, social work (MSW/DSW), public health (MPH/DrPH), physician assistant, occupational and physical therapy, audiology, speech‑language pathology, accounting and certain business/engineering master’s—from the agency’s narrower new definition for student‑loan purposes [1] [2] [3] [4]. Available sources do not say DeVos herself ordered those reclassifications while secretary [1] [5].
1. What the record shows about DeVos’s tenure
Betsy DeVos served as U.S. secretary of education from 2017 to 2021; biographical and historical entries list her confirmation and policies during that period but do not document a Department rule that, under her authority, removed named degrees from a federal “professional degree” classification in the way recent headlines describe [1] [5] [6]. Reporting and retrospectives about her legacy focus on deregulation, for‑profit college policy and Title IX, not a specific reclassification list now circulating online [7] [8].
2. What the 2025‑era controversy actually concerns
In late 2025 the Department of Education issued a proposal to narrow the regulatory definition of “professional degrees” for federal student‑loan rules, shrinking the list of programs that qualify for higher loan caps from roughly 2,000 to fewer than 600. That proposal—prominent in news and social media—would, if finalized, treat many health, education and allied‑health graduate programs as ordinary graduate degrees for loan limits rather than “professional” programs [9] [2] [10].
3. The specific programs repeatedly named in reporting
Multiple outlets and professional associations identified a largely consistent set of programs the Department’s proposal would exclude from the professional‑degree category for loan purposes: education (including teaching master’s), nursing (MSN, DNP and variants), social work (MSW/DSW), public health (MPH/DrPH), physician assistant, occupational therapy, physical therapy, audiology, speech‑language pathology, and several business, accounting and engineering master’s programs [2] [3] [4] [10].
4. Why this is not merely semantics
Coverage and expert commentary emphasize the change affects federal loan caps, not job licensing or whether professions are “real” careers. The Department’s definition determines higher federal unsubsidized loan limits available to students in programs designated “professional,” so reclassification would lower borrowing capacity for students in many clinical and education fields—raising practical concerns about access and workforce supply in nursing and allied health [11] [10] [9].
5. Disagreement and lobbying around the list
Professional associations—nursing groups, the AICPA for accountants and allied‑health organizations—have publicly objected and petitioned the Department to retain or explicitly include their fields as professional programs, arguing licensure paths and workforce implications justify inclusion. At the same time, proponents of the change frame it as a debt‑management and ROI correction to curb graduate borrowing for programs with weaker financial returns [3] [4] [10].
6. How the online narrative misattributes responsibility
Social posts and headlines sometimes attribute the 2025 reclassification to “the Trump admin” or to Betsy DeVos personally. The available sources frame the rulemaking as a Department proposal circulating in late 2025 and not as a finalized DeVos‑era action; fact‑checks note the change was a proposed regulatory redefinition affecting loan limits, not an instantaneous reclassification enacted by DeVos while secretary [2] [9] [1].
7. Limitations and what’s not in the reporting
Available sources do not provide a single, official government list finalized under DeVos that names degrees removed during 2017–2021, nor do they show DeVos personally issuing the 2025 proposal; the documents and reporting cited here describe a post‑DeVos regulatory proposal and stakeholder reactions [1] [2] [9]. The full rule text, official Department timeline and any final rule outcomes are not reproduced in the provided material [9] [2].
8. Read the rule, watch the comment period
The crucial next step for reporters and affected students is to inspect the Department’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking and the list embedded in it, and to follow whether the Department finalizes the rule after public comments and lobbying. Professional groups and employers are already mobilizing because the practical effect concerns loan limits and student access, not occupational licensure [11] [3].
Sources cited: Betsy DeVos background and tenure [1] [5] [6]; late‑2025 Department of Education proposal and reporting, lists of affected programs and fact‑checks [2] [3] [10] [9] [11] [4].