The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBB) was signed into law on July 4, 2025, representing massive changes to federal student aid and offering new opportunities—and challenges—for higher education institutions. Among myriad initiatives that touch on different policy areas, OBBB eliminated federal graduate PLUS loans, put new caps on parent PLUS loans, introduced Workforce Pell grants, and more. These major updates, many of which have taken effect on July 1, 2026, have increased pressure on financial aid offices to handle more diverse and complex funding scenarios.
One of the biggest challenges for many financial aid leaders and business office executives will be to identify whether their institution’s financial aid platform and programs can keep up with OBBB changes. Despite federal changes, institutions must still deliver the financial support that many students need—but it will be critical that they do so without overloading staff, compromising student access to critical information, or impairing institutional viability.
Institutional Accountability Is at the Forefront
OBBB has placed a big emphasis on return on investment (ROI). For many students, higher education has put them into debt, not yielding positive ROI until many years after graduation. OBBB has put more pressure on institutions to ensure positive student outcomes with its “Do No Harm” provision, requiring federally aided programs to demonstrate that their graduates earn more than what they would have earned had they not gone through the program. Programs will be revoked from federal aid if their graduates do not outperform this benchmark.
This places pressure on financial aid departments to understand, document, and track student outcomes. Institutions need technologies to capture information on student success metrics and analytics tools that help assess the viability of various academic programs against proven job market data.
To thrive, institutions need to support and improve student outcomes, reduce excessive borrowing and debt, and demonstrate the ROI of higher education. For financial aid departments, this may mean revisiting loan packaging strategies, adjusting institutional practices and policies, and improving how financial aid information is communicated with learners.
Stay Agile
OBBB is forcing institutions to handle major federal financial aid changes in the absence of fully complete federal guidance. As a result, institutions need to rely on their ability to pivot and remain nimble. They need financial aid management systems to be flexible, updatable, and configurable as regulations evolve or further clarification is given. Institutions relying on legacy or rigid financial aid platforms may find it extremely difficult to implement compliant packaging rules.
With a modern financial aid management system, institutions can keep all their systems, processes, and data compliant with federal regulations. This is why Jenzabar Financial Aid is so powerful: It provides institutions with a cloud-native, flexible platform that enables them to reduce risk and improve experiences without inhibiting their ability to deliver critical financial support.
Communicate, Communicate, Communicate
Financial aid communication will play an even more pivotal role in higher education going forward. Institutions need to take a proactive approach to communicating new regulations, rather than waiting for students to ask questions or present problems. If institutions do not effectively communicate financial aid changes, staff may be inundated with student inquiries closer to completion deadlines.
Additionally, prospective students most likely have different questions today than they did last year thanks to the elimination of future grad PLUS loans, parent PLUS loan caps, Pell Grant eligibility stipulations, borrowing limits, and more changes brought about by OBBB. Institutions should get ahead of student inquiries by sharing information with learners.
Institutions should consider openly sharing and communicating information about financial aid through emails, texts, website landing pages, webinars, FAQ and social sites, chatbots, as well as in-person or online advising sessions.
- Which financial aid rules changed?
- When did the changes take effect?
- Who will be affected?
Institutions can mitigate challenges down the line if they share how students can prepare for financial aid changes and their impact. With Jenzabar Financial Aid, institutions can leverage a student-centered system that supports proactive communication with learners. With 24/7 mobile access, students can upload documents and share their preferred channel for communications, leading to more personalized and transparent experiences.
Prepare Now
Institutions need to start preparing now if they are to weather the changes brought about by OBBB. They need the right technology foundation, the right partnerships, and a student-first communication posture.
Jenzabar Financial Aid was built from the ground up as an adaptable platform to evolve exactly alongside these kinds of regulatory transitions. It has configurable packaging rules, integrated communication tools, and compliance-ready workflows—all with the intent to reduce manual processes, improve information and policy transparency, and deliver exceptional student experiences.
