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LITTLE ROCK—News that illegal immigrants could pay in-state tuition rates at Arkansas’ two largest universities sparked policy questions and criticism that schools could improperly boost their enrollment to receive more state funding, e-mails obtained by The Associated Press show.

The e-mails to the state Department of Higher Education from school administrators came after the governor’s office began asking harried questions last week about policies at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville and the University of Central Arkansas in Conway.

Director Jim Purcell said a check of a statewide database of student information found that about 2,000 people enrolled at Arkansas colleges and universities attend classes under dummy Social Security numbers. Some of those students could be illegal immigrants, while others could be international students or legal U.S. residents who haven’t registered with the Social Security Administration, he said.

Purcell sent a letter last week warning schools not to offer illegal immigrants in-state tuition, unless they wanted to give the same benefits to an out-of-state student. The department began polling the state’s two- and four-year colleges and universities after that to find out their admissions practices.

Chancellor Joel Anderson at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock wrote that his school required federal confirmation of a student’s immigration status if they didn’t offer a Social Security number. Associate Vice Chancellor Carlia Smith at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff wrote that her school required a Social Security number unless a student had a visa, but didn’t directly question residency or citizenship. Robert C. Brown of Arkansas Tech said his school does the same, but asks about residency to determine if a student should receive a tuition break.

At Arkansas State University, President Leslie Wyatt wrote that graduates of state high schools who are not U.S. citizens don’t qualify for state financial aid. In a separate e-mail, Wyatt said all school chancellors and presidents knew of the rule after “our futile attempts” in 2005 to change state law to allow illegal immigrants to receive in-state tuition.