Are master’s and doctorates in accounting “professional” degrees? Not anymore, according to the Department of Education.
The department’s Reimagining and Improving Student Education (RISE) committee recently released draft regulations that specified which graduate degrees count as “professional” for purposes of federal student loans—and accounting wasn’t on the list. Neither were many graduate degrees commonly considered “professional,” such as nursing, engineering, education, and architecture, Inside Higher Ed reported.
The education department’s decision isn’t merely semantic: If it’s finalized, it will affect how much federal aid students are able to receive. Students in the 11 degree fields designated “professional” will be able to borrow up to $50,000 a year and no more than $200,000 in total. For students in other programs, federal loans will be capped at $20,500 per year and a total of $100,000.
Professions fire back: Numerous professional organizations, including the National Academy of Medicine, the American Nurses Association, the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, the Council on Social Work Education, and the American Institute of Architects, have spoken out against the department’s decision.
Now, accounting organizations have followed suit. The AICPA and state societies of accounting, the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA), and the American Accounting Association (AAA), a professional organization representing accounting educators, have all released formal statements in opposition to the decision. Both the AICPA and AAA statements requested that the education department reconsider classifying accounting degrees as professional, and NASBA wrote in its statement that it “will engage policymakers to ensure accounting is restored to the professional degree category.”
Concern for accounting’s reputation: Leaders at the accounting organizations have expressed concerns that the decision could weaken public perception of accounting as a learned profession. In a statement, the Department of Education clarified that the term “professional” is an “internal definition” used for student loan purposes. But Daniel Dustin, president and CEO of NASBA, told CFO Brew that he worries people, and especially young people who might be considering accounting as a career, might miss that context.
“Does that have a negative impact on middle school, high school students who are looking for careers?” he asked. “Does it have the same impact on college students who may not have declared a major yet?” He stressed, as NASBA did in its statement, the longevity of accounting’s professional status. “Certified public accountancy has been a licensed profession in the United States since 1896, the third profession after doctors and lawyers,” he observed.
In a video posted to LinkedIn, AICPA president and CEO Mark Koziel reaffirmed accounting’s status. “Accounting is absolutely a profession, full stop,” he said. “It’s built on trust, integrity, and rigorous standards” and requires a “lifelong commitment to an ethical practice and continuing education,” he said, concluding “These are the hallmarks of a true profession.”
The ruling will go into effect in July 2026, following a comment period. The department stated that it “has not prejudged the rulemaking process and may make changes in response to public comments.” But if accounting continues to be left off its list of professional degrees, leaders of accounting organizations worry that fewer students will choose to pursue graduate degrees in accounting.
Grad degrees could be harder to fund: “We don’t want to provide disincentives for people to move toward further education,” Mark Beasley, president of the AAA and an accounting professor at North Carolina State University, told CFO Brew, noting that the department’s decision could “make it more difficult financially” for students to earn advanced degrees. According to US News and World Report, tuition for a master’s in accounting typically ranges from $25,000 to $70,000. Tuition varies based on whether a student opts for a public or private school, or for an online or in-person program, but at some schools, it’s higher than the federal loan cap the Department of Education proposed. The amount “would not cover NC State” tuition, Beasley said.
If the loan cap remains where it is, students who want to pursue graduate degrees would have to find other ways to fund them. Doctoral students might receive assistantships that come with teaching stipends, Beasley said, and there’s a possibility accounting firms might help students fund their education. Private loans are an option, but they come with drawbacks: Interest rates could be higher than on federal loans, Dustin said, and students might not be able to defer them or consolidate them as readily.
And the private student loan industry may not be able to handle an influx of new borrowers. Only 8% of student loans are private, according to Inside Higher Ed. The industry has dwindled since the Great Recession, per the New York Times.
Accounting education could suffer: The proposal could even be harmful to accounting education on a broader scale. If it lowers demand for graduate education, programs might get smaller, Beasley said. And master’s degree completions in accounting have already dropped 38% between 2017–18 and 2023–24, AICPA data shows. It’s possible that fewer students will pursue master’s degrees in the future, given that candidates no longer need to complete 150 credit hours of schoolwork, or 30 more hours than are necessary for a bachelor’s degree, to sit for the CPA exam.
Having fewer doctoral students in accounting could also lead to fewer accounting faculty further down the road. Both Dustin and Beasley pointed out that many accounting educators are growing older. “We might see a shortage in five to 10 years as retirements increase,” Beasley said.
Ultimately, Beasley said, the department’s ruling “work[s] against the public interest.” It could discourage people from pursuing “the kinds of training and education and knowledge development to really be good at making professional judgments that are critical for the capital market system to be reliable here in the US.”
This report was originally published by CFO Brew.