The ruling says the Education Department violated Congress’s instructions by adding criteria strictly limiting which degrees qualify for higher federal student loan borrowing caps. Afederal judge has tossed out the Education Department’s rule that strictly limited graduate students’ access to higher federal student loan borrowing limits, a victory for universities, health-advocacy groups and others who argued the policy could stop students from earning advanced nursing degrees and pursuing other crucial professions. The ruling, released late Wednesday night, centers on the definition of “professional” degree in Congress’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act and how the department narrowed that definition when it issued its rule implementing the law. Judge Beryl A. Howell of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia called the department’s approach “misguided."