Graduate and professional aggregate loan limit update

Beginning with the 2026-2027 award year, Oracle Student Financial Aid can calculate remaining Direct Unsubsidized aggregate eligibility for graduate and professional students when the Loan Limit Exception does not apply. This update makes the NSLDS aggregate loan totals and current SFA Direct Unsubsidized loan activity needed for the calculation available to configuration during packaging when the required NSLDS and ISIR aggregate data is available.

The aggregate calculation applies to Direct Unsubsidized loans configured through OB3_Criteria. Oracle Student Financial Aid uses the Loan Limit Exception result only to determine whether graduate and professional aggregate-limit enforcement applies for the evaluated term.

With this update, Oracle Student Financial Aid can:

  • Calculate graduate aggregate remaining eligibility using the $100,000 aggregate limit, the NSLDS Graduate Aggregate Total, applicable Direct Unsubsidized loan amounts already represented in NSLDS for the student’s program, and current SFA packaged Direct Unsubsidized amounts up to the term being evaluated.
  • Calculate professional aggregate remaining eligibility using the $200,000 aggregate limit, the NSLDS Professional Aggregate Total, applicable Direct Unsubsidized loan amounts already represented in NSLDS for the student’s program, and current SFA packaged Direct Unsubsidized amounts up to the term being evaluated.
  • Continue to use existing predefined annual and aggregate limit logic when the student is eligible for the Loan Limit Exception.

Updates to the OB3 Criteria configuration:

OB3_Criteria configuration now has access to Direct Loan information within the NSLDS History File. Access to new Direct Loan binding data allows configuration to utilizes the NSLDS aggregate values needed to reduce the Remaining Aggregate Amount for Graduate / Professional students based on historical borrowing. 

  • See attached SFA 26.4.2 Configuration Updates (New Config) and SFA 26.4.2 Configuration Scripting API on Cloud Customer Connect for full details on the new bindings provided.

Baseline Configuration:

Oracle provides baseline configuration to help institutions implement this feature to account for historical loans in NSLDS to determine Remaining Aggregate amounts.

  • Review the related Feature Configuration Guide attached to the release notes post on Cloud Customer Connect to understand the delivered configuration changes and determine whether refinements are needed for your implementation.

Business benefit: Ensures automated, complaint handling of revised ED Direct Loan Aggregate limits for graduate and professional borrowers, minimizing manual assessment, supporting correct award packaging, and streamlining reconciliation between institutional and federal data sources.

Here's the demo of these capabilities:

Steps to enable and configure

Use the Opt In UI to enable this feature. For instructions, refer to the Optional Uptake of New Features section of this document.

Offering: Student Financial Aid

  • Update Configuration Scripts:
    • Review baseline configuration for new grade level and grad/professional loan limits when it is posted on Cloud Customer Connect, and update your configuration.
      • To get started, ensure that "Configuration Administration" Permission is enabled and download your existing configuration from Oracle Student Financial Aid within Administration > Configuration Administration > Download.
        • Update FAS_FUND_CONFIG.csv and add new logic to OB3_Criteria using the delivered baseline as a reference.
        • Review your 2026-27 Grade_Level_Progression logic within PKGSCHEDATTRIB.csv and update as needed.
      • Navigate to Administration > Configuration Administration, and upload your zipped configuration
  • Review Program and Student Classification:
    • Validate that all professional/graduate programs have the required data in SFA, including documents, based on the configuration you defined in Grade_Level_Progression
  • Repackage Students:
    • After successful testing in non production, you will need to load in your updated configuration to production, then repackage your graduate students to adjust their funding as needed.
      • Divide your bulk repackaging operation into manageable groups, taking into consideration processing windows, communication needs, and the availability of supporting resources. This approach will ensure you are well-equipped to assist students whose inquiries arise as a result of the repackaging process.

Tips and considerations

  • Configuration update needed: It is expected that you will need to update the OB3 Criteria script using the delivered baseline configuration as reference to compute the Remaining Aggregate Amount for Graduate / Professional students utilizing the new delivered bindings. The Remaining Aggregate Amount for Graduate / Professional students considers historical borrowing at other institutions by reducing those amounts and limiting the eligible SFA amount.  
    • Note: The previous baseline configuration delivered with 26B for the OB3 Criteria script limits both the annual and aggregate Unsubsidized amounts for Graduate / Professional students to regulatory amounts defined by ED but did not consider historical borrowing at other institutions.
  • Grade level progression: If new grade level are not configured, the system will default to default to using the existing Direct Loan limits that were in effect prior to the implementation of One Big Beautiful Bill.
  • OB3 Criteria defaults: If OB3 Criteria is not configured, the system will default to using the existing Direct Loan limits that were in effect prior to the implementation of One Big Beautiful Bill, ensuring continuity of operations and preventing unintended enforcement of the new loan limits in the absence of updated configuration.
  • Missing or Incomplete ED Data: If NSLDS or ISIR is unavailable or incomplete, the logic will default to treating the student as having full aggregate eligibility; no reduction will be applied on the basis of historical borrowing

Key resources

Access requirements

No new access requirements.