On Feb. 12, the University of Massachusetts Amherst announced a ban that said Iranian students would not be allowed to enroll in graduate engineering and science programs. After heavy backlash to the announcement, and consultations with outside counsel and the State Department, the University has lifted the ban.

The ban, which lasted only a few days, was a decision made by the university that was based a 2012 law enacted by Congress denying visas for Iranian students who wanted to study in the U.S., if they were preparing for careers in nuclear science or the energy sector in Iran. The law was based on thinking that these students could then return to their country and work on advancing their nuclear program.

The Public Affairs Alliance of Iranian Americans expressed concerns that the ban might set a precedent that would encourage other U.S. universities to adopt similar policies. On Wednesday, the alliance commended UMass Amherst for reversing the ban.  The National Iranian American Council policy director, Jamal Abdi, said that his group was surprised at how many programs and students would have been affected by the ban.

Amir Masoumi is a former graduate students who helped to establish the Iranian Graduate Student Association at the school. He said students he had talked to considered the ban to be “discriminatory interpretation of the law.”

Abdi said that Virginia Commonwealth University has a similar ban, but that it is not as extensive as the one briefly initiated at UMass Amherst.

The State Department has issued a statement saying that Iranian student visas would continue to be decided on a case-by-case basis. An official said that U.S. law does not prohibit Iranian people from coming to the U.S. for education in the fields of engineering and science, and noted that no recent changes in U.S. policy have been made in this regard.