As of next year, the Common Application will no longer ask applicants about their criminal histories.

The nonprofit organization behind the general application, which allows prospective students to apply to any one of the 830 schools that use it, announced this week that individual institutions will be given the choice to add the question, but it will no longer be automatically included beginning in 2019.

Civil rights activists have been pushing for the question to be removed for several years, claiming that it creates a bias against minority applicants.

The Common Application will no longer automatically ask applicants about criminal history, instead allowing individual schools to determine whether they want to include the question

An email sent from the Common Application to members Tuesday indicated that those within the organization were split on the issue.

'Member feedback shows there are strong and differing opinions regarding both keeping the question "common", and for leaving the decision on whether and how to ask the question up to individual members,' the email said.

'While a majority of survey respondents would prefer to keep the question on the "common" portion of the application, we found variation in member preferences based on institution type and other factors.

'For example, the majority of public institution survey respondents preferred that the question be asked at the discretion of the member.'

While the criminal history question will be omitted from the application, the organization has decided to keep the question regarding disciplinary incidents in high school for the time being.

Critics of the questions regarding criminal and disciplinary history claim that admissions officers often fail to take into account the social factors and biases that may have affected applicants, specifically those who are black or Latino.

They also question how much weight should be granted to an infraction committed by a student years prior to their decision to apply.

Former executive director of the Center for Community Alternatives Marsha Weissman called removing the question 'a step forward', albeit 'long overdue'.

Weissman told Inside Higher Ed that the move 'shifts the responsibility to individual colleges that may well be more amendable to hearing from their student groups and faculty, including directly impacted people, about whether and how to change this'.

'As an advocate for removing such questions from applications, I am optimistic that many, if not most, colleges and universities will choose not to so inquire,' she added.

However, Weissman expressed criticism with the organization's decision to keep the question regarding disciplinary history.

'Leaving the question about school discipline, at least as it applies to high school, is ridiculous based on the vagaries of how discipline varies by district, school and classroom,' she said.

'It gets one little more than junk, but unfortunately junk that has roots in racial bias. It also overemphasizes behavior done by adolescents - and flies in the face of the science of adolescent brain development. Even the juvenile justice system is recognizing that.'

On the other side of the argument, many college officials have defended the questions on the grounds that previous offenders are more likely to commit future crimes.

Additionally, supporters note that certain careers - such as those in health and education - do not allow convicts to take licensing exams.