UH enrollment rebounds
By Jennifer Hiller
Advertiser Education Writer
Enrollment rose this fall for the first time in nearly a decade at the University of Hawai'i, reversing a dismal trend that the state's public college system had been unable to shake since the mid-1990s.
Campus officials have watched their student body dwindle since 1994 and enrollment still remains lower today than it was in 1991.
However, with 46,198 students across its 10 campuses, UH enrollment increased about 3.6 percent when compared with this point in the semester last year, according to preliminary enrollment numbers released yesterday.
Kaua'i Community College, with a 10.5 percent increase, saw the greatest gain in students of all campuses. The flagship Manoa campus has 17,601 students, a 2.6 percent increase.
The enrollment boosts could be a sign of things to come later in the academic year.
Although enrollment at colleges nationwide typically drops during the spring semester, UH may see even more of a surge in early 2002 for two reasons, officials say. UH President Evan Dobelle has offered free tuition to anyone who gets laid off or sees their small business close as a result of a statewide financial crisis after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Also, university enrollment tends to increase when the economy falters.
"I think in times of downturn the university, unlike every other business, gets bigger. In difficult times there is more demand," Dobelle said. "People now have an opportunity in their life to get retrained in a certificate program or go into an academic degree program."
If it sticks, a rising student enrollment would reverse a trend that has been one of the most discouraging for the university system.
According to a recent study from the Hawai'i Educational Policy Center, an education think tank at UH-Manoa's College of Education, the UH system was hit by a variety of problems from 1994 to 2000 that caused an erosion of the student population from 51,677 to 44,579.
After peaking in 1994, enrollment throughout the UH system declined by almost 7,100 students, or about 14 percent, even while the number of public high school graduates increased 6.6 percent and the number of all high school graduates increased 8.5 percent during that same period.
No single factor drove the enrollment dip, but contributing to the problem has been increasing competition from private and for-profit schools, tuition increases and steep declines in the state's population of 25- to 34-year-olds, who make up a large portion of the state's community college population, the report said. Also, hard economic times, which usually translate into a larger student body, were so prolonged that enrollment was hurt instead of helped, administrators say.
Enrollments at Manoa and at Kaua'i, Leeward and Windward community colleges were all at 15-year lows last year.
This year, enrollment rose 1.4 percent at UH-Hilo, 9.4 percent at UH-West O'ahu and 4.4 percent overall in the community college system.
Enrollment increased .9 percent at Hawai'i Community College, 5.6 percent at Honolulu Community College, 4.1 percent at Kapi'olani Community College, 5.1 percent at Leeward Community College, 1.4 percent at Maui Community College and 6 percent at Windward Community College.
Staff writer James Gonser contributed to this report.
Reach Jennifer Hiller at jhiller@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8084.
