The Department of Homeland Security has approved the Northwestern economics department’s decision to classify as a science, technology, engineering and mathematics major, International Office director Ravi Shankar told The Daily in a Friday email.

The approval comes after NU’s economics department voted unanimously in April to classify as a STEM major. Students and faculty members previously said they expected months to go by before the change became official.

Moving forward, the change will affect undergraduate international students who are economics majors. The department had previously classified its graduate program as a STEM field.

International students can work in the United States for 12 months after they graduate, and can then apply for an H-1B visa to stay in the country. For international students who major in a STEM field, however, that period gets extended to 36 months.

Shankar said Thursday that the change would affect students who graduated last year and are currently coming to the end of the 12-month period. On Friday, however, Shankar and University registrar Jaci Casazza did not specify whether the change in classification would be applied retroactively.

There are about 30 international students who graduated from NU in 2017 with an economics degree, Shankar said.

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