To receive a copy of COHEAO’s report ‘Mapping the Gap’, please submit the form below.
For a summary brief of the report, please click here. For an Implementation Update of the ‘Mapping the Gap’ report, as of August 2026, click here.
COHEAO’s “Mapping the Gap” report shows how the new federal limits may create operational challenges for clinical programs and smaller institutions while opening strategic financing opportunities for some well-resourced campuses.
COHEAO released Mapping the Gap: The New Graduate and Professional Loan Caps & The Uneven Exposure Across Higher Education, a national report examining how new federal graduate and professional student loan limits may affect students, institutions, healthcare workforce preparation, and campus operations.
Beginning July 1, 2026, Grad PLUS borrowing will be eliminated for new borrowers, and new annual and aggregate federal loan limits will apply. Graduate programs will generally be subject to a $20,500 annual federal limit and a $100,000 aggregate graduate borrowing limit, while programs that qualify as professional programs will be subject to higher limits.
The report builds from publicly available graduate and professional loan-limit data developed by the American University Postsecondary Education and Economics Research Center, drawing on Department of Education data for Academic Years 2021–2023. COHEAO uses that public baseline to examine how potential financing pressure may vary by program cluster, institution type, state, repayment environment, and response capacity.