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The University of California Irvine will cut MBA tuition for the 2026-27 school year to come under new caps on graduate student loans.
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act only allows students pursuing a professional degree, like a law degree, to borrow $50,000 per year in taxpayer-backed loans, or $200,000 total. Other graduate programs have a $100,000 lifetime limit.
The business school said the changes were in a direct response to the law. “At $99,000, the Flex MBA now falls below the federal loan cap for graduate business degrees, removing a key financial barrier for working professionals in Southern California and beyond,” the school stated in its announcement.
The business school dean reiterated that the cap drove the changes.
“A University of California MBA, now priced below the federal loan cap,” Dean Ian Williamson stated. “That combination simply didn’t exist in this market before today.”
Williamson did not respond to two emailed requests for comment in the past two weeks.
To some economists, these cuts are an expected response to the new limits.
“Economists have been able to show that expanded access to credit caused universities to raise the cost of graduate programs,” Beth Akers, senior fellow at the American Enterprise institute, wrote in an email to The Fix.
“The thought behind the lower loan limits in the OBBB was that prices would likely fall in response to the contraction in federal lending,” she said.
As to the effect federal loan caps will have on universities and programs themselves, Akers does not seem concerned.
“One could imagine that this reduction in revenue would result in lower quality programs, but the reality is that the reduced revenue might affect an entirely different part of the institutions,” because some programs subsidize others.
“The hope is that the college figures out a way to be more efficient and provide the same quality at a reduced cost,” she said. “Given many obvious inefficiencies in the sector, that isn’t an unreasonable expectation.”
Others agree that tuition reductions are expected but warned of consequences for students.
Sarah Austin, a policy analyst from the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, highlighted other ways colleges might adapt.
“Reducing tuition is one of several expected responses from the new student loan limits,” Austin said.
“We know there will be a funding gap for certain students due to these changes, and schools have been exploring ways to address this gap,” she said. “We expect schools are considering reducing tuition, increasing institutional aid, or counseling students on other external funding options like private student loans.”
Austin thinks that with these new limits in place, other colleges may follow UC Irvine’s tuition-cutting example.
“I expect we might see other schools pursuing this option, especially those with graduate programs that are high cost but do not qualify for the increased loan limits for professional degree programs,” she said.
Students, however, face new challenges when seeking ways to pay for graduate degrees.
“While some of those students will be able to borrow private student loans to fill the gap, credit requirements for private loans are more stringent and some students will not qualify, even with a co-signer,” Austin said.
“For these students, that gap may impact their ability to enroll or continue enrollment in their desired program,” she said.
But, Austin says, “because these loan changes have not been implemented yet, outcomes remain uncertain and will depend on how institutions, students, and private lenders respond to the new loan limits.”
University of California Irvine is not the first to reduce tuition in response to the student loan limits.
In December 2025, The Fix reported that Santa Clara University School of Law would be offering students $16,000 scholarships in order to help students afford school in the face of new loan caps.
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