MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Pell Grant funding for undergraduate students was preserved in the law to raise the federal debt ceiling, but it was financed by curbs to student loan subsidies that helped graduate students.

The Minnesota Daily reports that has some professional and graduate students at the University of Minnesota concerned.

Government-subsidized loans for graduate and professional students across the nation will be eliminated in July 2012. Those students will begin paying interest on their loans while still in school, or let it accumulate.

The president of the University’s Graduate and Professional Student Assembly, Abou Amara, says the lack of subsidized loans will deter some students from attending graduate school.

Amara says he supports the Pell Grant program but cuts to programs at the state and federal level mean a “bleak future” for grad students.