Tuition at UH still below U.S. average
By Beverly Creamer
Advertiser Education Writer
The University of Hawai'i continues to be one of the best financial bargains in the country.
A new nationwide study this year shows that average college tuition levels are substantially higher than those in the UH system — and are going up faster.
"I applied to seven schools and this was the second-cheapest," said 18-year-old UH-Manoa freshman Mark Chaplin of Connecticut, who said the cost was one of the major draws of UH. Only his hometown school was more affordable, said Chaplin.
Tuition increases nationally show a rise of 10.5 percent at four-year public institutions last year. Costs at UH are going up at a rate of 3 percent annually.
Tuition at UH is also far less than the national average — $3,580 annually, compared with the $5,132 average of all public state colleges, according to figures from the College Board released this morning. The College Board is a not-for-profit association whose mission is to connect students to college success and opportunity.
Tuition at Hawai'i's community colleges — $1,150 — also falls substantially below the national average this year of $2,076 at two-year state colleges. That national average is an increase of 8.7 percent over a year ago.
With prices still low, students looking toward college next year are already turning their eyes to UH, say administrators.
"From the Manoa perspective, we believe this is one of the factors that's contributing to our enrollment increases, especially among out-of-state students," said Manoa spokesman Jim Manke. "But we also had record numbers of Hawai'i students who are coming out to our fall enrollment recruitment visits on all islands (for next year).
"We had 700 kids and their parents at Campus Center a month ago. Even the kids here are seeing this is a real bargain, too."
The low tuition throughout the UH system is under close scrutiny by the UH administration. A new tuition increase is among the options being considered to cope with a tight budget and increasing enrollment.
While UH administrators have been in the habit of calling UH one of the best educational bargains around, an almost 18 percent increase in student numbers over the past four years has sent enrollment to levels above 20,000 students this semester at Manoa alone, taxing the capacity of dorms, faculty, classrooms and money.
"In the context of nationwide tuition increases, the tuition at the University of Hawai'i, particularly at our Manoa campus, remains quite affordable," said acting President David McClain.
"But as we examine how we might change our tuition rates in the future, we must try to sustain our progress in providing access to higher education for those least able to afford it, by increasing financial aid."
State financial support for UH has dipped to about 45 percent of the UH budget in the past few years, compared to more than 50 percent as recently as 1989, and administrators are increasingly looking at ways to supplement diminishing state money.
At the same time UH is looking into rearranging how it offers financial aid to students in need. Currently $35 million of the $125 million in tuition is given away in tuition waivers. But McClain said the university needs to be smarter in how it offers aid to students in need.
Gov. Linda Lingle has already told McClain she will suggest a one-time $20 million infusion into the state scholarship program created by the Legislature last year, and McClain has said he would like to see that program administered by UH.
Nationally all forms of student aid are increasing, although loans that students must repay are outpacing grants. Student aid reached $122 billion, an increase of 11 percent from a year ago.
The national survey also noted that tuition increases nationally this year are generally smaller than they were last year when state support of public higher education dipped throughout the country because of a nationwide economic downturn.
But McClain notes that "in today's knowledge-based economy, a college degree is more and more essential, and returns to its holder a stream of income twice what those not in college earn."
Reach Beverly Creamer at bcreamer@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8013.
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