The US state of Arizona has passed a law protecting the right to religious expression of university students.

The move comes after a series of cases in which various Christian students and student groups have been sanctioned by a range of colleges.

Last year, a Christian student in Eastern Michigan University was expelled by college authorities for refusing to affirm homosexual activity as morally legitimate.

Julea Ward, who was enrolled in a graduate counseling program at Eastern Michigan University, was told that she had to change her beliefs about sexual morality, or leave the course.

A US federal judge rejected an appeal by Ms Ward against the college’s ruling last year. It is understood another appeal to a higher court is pending.

The new law provides a range of protections for religious students, including a provision permitting students enrolled in helping profession programs to avoid counseling relationships that would require them to violate their religious convictions.

The specific provision of the law states: “A university or community college shall not discipline or discriminate against a student in a counseling, social work or psychology program because the student refuses to counsel a client about goals that conflict with the student’s sincerely held religious belief if the student consults with the supervising instructor or professor to determine the proper course of action to avoid harm to the client.”

The bill, signed by Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer earlier this month, was welcomed by religious freedom groups in the US.

The Alliance Defence Fund (ADF), which provides legal assistance to people who stand up for their conscience said that the law “comes at a needed time”.

“Christian and other religious university students should not be punished for expressing and living according to their beliefs, and that’s all this bill aims to protect,” said ADF Legal Counsel Jeremy Tedesco.

“ADF is involved in several lawsuits nationwide right now concerning this very sort of problem: university officials who think they can withhold a degree or mark down a student because they hold views that don’t fit with the politically correct views of administrators.

“Laws like Arizona’s will help stop that from happening, and ADF will gladly defend the bill free of charge if it is ever challenged in court.”

In a letter to the Governor Brewer in respect of the new law, ADF said there was growing trend towards excluding Christians and people of other religious from the helping professions (social work, counseling, psychology) to exclude Christians (and persons of other religious persuasions).

“ADF has filed three cases (including the Ward case) in the last few years involving students enrolled in counseling or social work programs who were discriminated against because of their religious beliefs; we favorably settled one of these cases and are currently litigating the other two,” the ADF letter explains.

“HB 2565 thus comes at an opportune time. With the helping professions and universities taking the position that religious people who take their religious faith seriously are not welcome in the profession, it is the right time for the legislature and governor to act to protect the fundamental, religious liberties of Arizona citizens.”