Washington — The Obama administration’s relaxing of tough policies against Cuba should be expanded to allow scholars and students to travel there more easily, international educators said today.

The White House announced on Monday it was loosening restrictions on Cuban-Americans’ ability to send money to family members in Cuba and to travel there.

Nafsa: Association of International Educators is calling on the Obama administration to lift sanctions that curtail academic travel to Cuba as well. At a minimum, the group says in a statement, President Obama should repeal restrictions imposed by his predecessor.

The Bush administration in 2004 barred short-term study trips to Cuba, allowing only visits lasting at least 10 weeks. In addition, under the rules, colleges sponsoring the trips could no longer accept students from other institutions, and only full-time tenured faculty members from the sponsoring institution could lead the trips. The restrictions virtually ended educational travel to Cuba, as the number of study-abroad programs plunged from an estimated 200 to a handful today.

But Nafsa also says Mr. Obama could “set a genuinely new direction in U.S. policy toward Cuba by reconsidering all of the limitations on travel to Cuba.” —Karin Fischer