Colleges and universities may soon have to give students a blunt warning: some of their programs might not pay off.
Earlier this month, the Department of Education proposed a new rule that would cut off federal student loan access to college programs whose students earn too little after they graduate. For undergraduate programs, those diploma holders would generally need to earn at least as much as young workers with only a high school degree. For graduate programs, graduates would need to beat a benchmark based on workers with only a bachelor’s degree. In certain cases, programs that fall short could also lose access to Pell Grants.
