Newly enrolled international students cannot come to the US if their university has announced a 100 per cent online reopening for the fall semester, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement said on Friday.

While students already studying in the US at schools that have declared fully online models are allowed to stay, those abroad will not be allowed to enter the country unless their schools plan to offer a hybrid or fully in-person model of instruction.

The directive comes less than two weeks after ICE rescinded a policy requiring all international students to take at least one online class after a widespread backlash and a lawsuit filed by Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.