New Federal Regulations and What They Mean for Your Graduate Programs
New federal regulations will hold graduate programs accountable for alumni earnings — and research suggests nearly half of master’s programs already fall short of the proposed benchmark. In this webinar, we break down what these proposed regulations mean and what institutions can do now to support student career outcomes.
The Department of Education has proposed replacing the Financial Value Transparency framework with a new regulation called the Student Tuition and Transparency System (STATS), which evaluates graduate programs based solely on alumni earnings four years after graduation.
Programs whose alumni fail to out-earn bachelor’s degree holders in their state two out of three consecutive years will lose federal Direct Loan eligibility — and research from Third Way suggests roughly 43–50% of master’s programs already fail that benchmark.
While this specific rule faces legal and political uncertainty, the broader push for earnings-based accountability is bipartisan and durable. This pressure lands at the worst possible time: a difficult job market, declining enrollment, and funding uncertainty are already straining institutions, while graduate students remain largely unprepared for professional job searches.
In this webinar, we unpack these proposed changes and share strategies institutions can use to scale career support and protect the long-term viability of their graduate programs.
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