AMHERST, Mass. – The University of Massachusetts Amherst this week banned all Iranian nationals from its graduate programs in engineering and natural sciences, citing a U.S. Department of Homeland Security policy.

Iranian students at the university, of course, are not happy with the decision.

“We feel it’s against the American spirit of freedom in education,” Amir Azadi, a member of the university’s Iranian Graduate Students Association, told the Boston Globe.

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The new policy means students like Yale astronomer Sina Rostami and his wife Zahra Ghaffari, who both planned on transferring to UMass, will have to look elsewhere.

Rostami received a letter from the admissions office that denied his application citing a 2012 federal law “which excludes citizens of Iran from education in the United States if they plan to focus on nuclear and, more broadly, energy related research in Iran,” the New Haven Register reports.

The letter refers to the “Iran Threat Reduction and Syrian Human Rights Act of 2012,” which the university alleges is causing complications with Iranian students that could impact faculty and students.

“Colleges and universities in the U.S. have found that Iranian students who travel abroad during their studies are being denied re-entry by the Department of Homeland Security as a result of these and other regulations,” according to the university’s procedures cited by the Register.

“There are significant penalties, both civil and criminal, that could potentially impact faculty, staff and students, for violations of this Act and the related regulations and restrictions.”

Rostami told the news site his biggest frustration centers on the timing of the new policy.

“The problem I have is, why did they not announce this decision six months later or six months earlier?” he questioned. “We both found the program which was appropriate for both of us.”

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The decision, announced in an email to students Thursday, came as the U.S. and other countries pursued sanctions on Iran’s nuclear program, but was not precipitated by any recent change in federal law.

In an email to the Boston Globe, an unidentified U.S. State Department official told the news site that “all visa applications are reviewed individually in accordance with the requirements of the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act and other relevant laws that establish detailed standards for determining eligibility for visas and admission to the United States.”

“U.S. law does not prohibit qualified Iranian nationals coming to the United States for education in science and engineering,” according to the email. “Each application is reviewed on a case-by-case basis.”

UMass apparently has a different interpretation of the law.

“The University has determined that these sanctions pose a significant challenge to our ability to provide a full program of education and research for Iranian students in certain disciplines and programs. Because we must ensure compliance with applicable laws and regulations, the University has determined that it will no longer admit Iranian national students to specific programs in the College of Engineering (i.e., Chemical Engineering, Electrical & Computer Engineering, Mechanical & Industrial Engineering) and in the College of Natural Sciences (i.e., Physics, Chemistry, Microbiology, and Polymer Science & Engineering) effective February 1, 2015,” according to the university’s recent announcement.

“In addition, all enrolled Iranian national students will be required to acknowledge the restrictions imposed by the 2012 sanctions and certify their compliance in writing. We recognize that these decisions create difficulties for our students from Iran and regard this as unfortunate.

“Furthermore, the exclusion of a class of students from admission directly conflicts with our institutional values and principles. However, we must to adhere to the law and hence have instituted this policy to ensure that we are in compliance,” according to the announcement.

UMass also cited a specific excerpt from the 2012 Act that precipitated its new policy:

“The Secretary of State shall deny a visa to, and the Secretary of Homeland Security shall exclude from the United States, any alien who is a citizen of Iran that the Secretary of State determines seeks to enter the United States to participate in coursework at an institution of higher education…to prepare the alien for a career in the energy sector of Iran or in nuclear science or nuclear engineering or a related field in Iran.”

Meanwhile, students like Rostami believe it’s not the university’s place to determine who is eligible to study in the U.S. under the law because “the FBI takes care of everything,” he told the Register.

“They do the background check on me,” he said. “It is not the responsibility of the university.”

Others, like export law blogger Clif Burns, also believe UMass is misinterpreting the law, and could be breaking other federal laws in the process.

“To begin with, (the section of the Act cited by UMass) imposes an obligation on the State Department and not on any university in regard to its relation with a student once such a visa is granted,” Burns posted to ExportLawBlog.com.

“Nor does the prohibition extend to all fields in science and engineering, unless, somehow, a graduate degree in biology prepares one to work in the energy or nuclear field,” Burns continued.

“Beyond that, the university runs the risk of violating the anti-discrimination provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act. Those provisions prohibit discrimination in employment against a legally-admitted foreign national based on his or her national origin.

“Since graduate students normally receive employment from their universities, a total ban on Iranian graduate students could very likely be seen as a violation of those prohibitions,” Burns wrote.