PROVO — Brigham Young University will resume academic programs at its Center for Near Eastern Studies in Jerusalem this winter, according to a statement on BYU's Web site.

The center will be open winter semester, which runs January to April.

The school will accept 44 students who are students at BYU in Provo who have completed at least two semesters of full-time course work at a college or university.

Applications must be postmarked between Oct. 23 and Nov. 3.

Future programs will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis as BYU administrators consider the political environment and security in the Middle East.

BYU has not operated academic programs at the center for nearly six years because of violence in the region. Other parts of the center, however, are open to visitors.

BYU had planned on opening the academic program for fall semester but the school's administration in July against opening it, largely because of escalating violence in the region.

The center an eight-story, 125,000-square-foot building on Mount Scopus overlooking the Mount of Olives, the Kidron Valley and the Old City.