Is requiring students to have a recent degree a form of age discrimination if it excludes older workers?

There are a number of different factors that go into determining the answer to your question. First, is the school you are discussing receiving any form of federal funding, including funding from the U.S. Department of Education? If so, the school may be prohibited by the Federal Age Discrimination Act of 1975 from discriminating on the basis of age. If the school is prohibited from discriminating on the basis of age, the next question you will need to determine the answer to is whether the requirement is a form of age discrimination. The answer to that question depends on whether the school has a legitimate reason for requiring a recent degree, and whether the requirement is justified by the nature of the program, otherwise this would be considered employer age discrimination. That question is a question of fact that has to be determined on a case by case basis. Your best course of action would be to speak with a civil rights attorney with experience in age discrimination cases, in order to determine whether the school’s requirement is a form of age discrimination.