Students pursuing degrees that lead to low-paying careers could lose federal student loans under a new rule from the US Department of Education, with religious studies, social work, music, fine arts, and cosmetology among the fields most exposed.
The department's new earnings accountability framework ties federal lending to graduate pay. Courses whose former students fail to out-earn workers who never attended college could lose access to the federal Direct Loan programme as early as the 2028-29 academic year.
