Dive Brief:

• The University of Massachusetts at Amherst has a new policy preventing the admission of Iranian students to specific science and engineering programs.
• The university cites a 2012 sanctions law against Iran as the reason behind its policy. That law says that the U.S. government will deny visas for Iranians intending to take higher education courses related to energy or nuclear fields.
• Critics say that the university is taking an overly broad view of the law, and they are concerned that other schools will follow suit, Inside Higher Ed reports.

Dive Insight:

Critics are also framing this issue as a threat to academic freedom, and even if other schools don’t adopt similar policies, the publicity over the University of Massachusetts’ actions could serve as a deterrent to Iranian students wanting to take any science and engineering courses in the U.S. The specific banned programs for Iranian citizens at UMass are chemical engineering, chemistry, electrical and computer engineering, mechanical and industrial engineering, microbiology, physics, and polymer science and engineering.

Virginia Commonwealth University and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute are two other schools with public policies against students from countries under U.S. sanctions. VCU mentions Iranians banned from graduate programs in mechanical or nuclear engineering and RPI says citizens from Cuba, Iran, Iraq, North Korea, Sudan, and Syria need to check first with the school before applying.