Students and faculty at the public university say that an unofficial policy is in effect to automatically reject students from China and a number of other countries altogether.

The alleged shift in admissions practices at Purdue followed a letter sent last year to six universities by the US House’s select committee on the Chinese Communist party (CCP), demanding they turn over data about Chinese students, a population they say jeopardizes national security.

“Our nation’s universities, long regarded as the global standard for excellence and innovation, are increasingly used as conduits for foreign adversaries to illegally gain access to critical research and advanced technology,” the committee wrote, adding that the admission of large number of Chinese students into science, technology, engineering and mathematics programs came “potentially at the expense of qualified Americans”.