The Trump administration is signaling a possible shift in its plan to grant the more than $1 trillion federal student loan portfolio to a single loan servicer, according to a Department of Education announcement Tuesday.

In May, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said the department intended to move to a system in which one company, instead of a larger group of contractors, would oversee outstanding federal student loans.

But in outlining its plans for the new system this week, the department said it will create a single data-processing platform to house all student loan information – a project mirroring one set in motion by the Obama administration – and customer account servicing will be handled either by a single contract servicer or by multiple contract servicers.

"Doing what's best for students will always be our No. 1 priority," DeVos said in a statement. "By starting afresh and pursuing a truly modern loan servicing environment, we have a chance to turn what was a good plan into a great one."

DeVos had said the original plan was necessary to reduce costs and streamline a process notoriously difficult to navigate. But critics have blasted the proposal, arguing a single servicer would create a "too big to fail" scenario that would harm borrowers rather than help them.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat whose work led to the founding of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau – a federal agency that's exposed poor customer service among federal student loan servicers – cheered what she called the department "changing course."

"But it will be important to continue watching the department to evaluate whether its decisions are good for the millions of struggling federal student loan borrowers," Warren said in a statement.

Warren, as part of a bipartisan group of lawmakers that also includes Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., recently introduced a bill aimed at preventing the Education Department from awarding all federal student loans to a single loan servicer.

"Congress should pass our bipartisan legislation to ensure that the department never heads in this direction again," Warren said.

Going forward, the department plans to collect feedback from stakeholders – including members of the servicing industry, financial aid organizations like the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, and borrowers – about what a new servicing system should look like.

In choosing who will provide loan-servicing, department officials plan to consider a variety of factors, including past performance and technical capabilities.

"To improve customer service, we will take the best ideas and capabilities available and put them to work for Americans with student loans," A. Wayne Johnson, the new chief operating officer of the department's Federal Student Aid office, said in a statement.

Johnson founded First Performance Global, a company offering a technology platform for card payments, and also has prior experience in the banking sector. His goal is to bring the federal student loan system up to speed by adopting advanced technology and borrowing ideas from the private sector.

"I hired Dr. Johnson for his extensive private sector expertise, his fresh perspective and his innovative thinking," DeVos said in a statement. "After just a few weeks on the job, Wayne has already identified potential ways to modernize FSA and to leverage new technology that will not only enhance the customer service experience for borrowers but will also protect taxpayers."

Contracts with current student loan servicers expire in 2019, at which point the Education Department will be poised to transition to its new system.