About

The Funding Gap

The Funding Gap is an independent research initiative of Gap Funding Group LLC, a firm operating in the graduate education financing space.

The Dataset

Our flagship report, The 2026 Graduate Education Funding Crisis, maps the funding gap at 7,333 graduate programs across 1,861 universities created by the elimination of Grad PLUS loans and imposition of new borrowing caps under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), effective July 1, 2026.

Every cost-of-attendance figure was scraped directly from institutional websites—primary source data, not IPEDS estimates. The dataset covers 28 degree types across all 50 states.

Methodology

The data was collected using custom-built scraping infrastructure. Tuition and cost-of-attendance figures reflect the 2025–2026 academic year as published by each institution.

The full methodology, including data sources, classification logic, and limitations, is documented in Section 2 of the report.

Independence

This research is self-funded. Gap Funding Group built this dataset to understand the market it operates in. The findings were not commissioned by any university, lender, advocacy organization, or government entity.

The data is what it is. We publish it because the scale of the funding gap ($51.8 billion annually, affecting 95.2% of graduate programs) has not been quantified elsewhere, and the information is relevant to students, institutions, lenders, policymakers, and journalists covering the July 2026 transition.

Contact

Research inquiries: research@thefundinggap.org

Corporate site: gapfundinggroup.com

Report: Read the full report