Amid criticism that looming tuition hikes will price out low-income students, the University of Hawai'i-Manoa has ranked among the top four public universities in the country for the access it affords minority and low-income students.

Overall, UH-Manoa received a B in the report, along with the University of New Hampshire, the University of New Mexico and the University of Vermont. No state universities received an A and most received Fs.

Looking at one public university in every state, the authors of "Engines of Inequality: Diminishing Equity in the Nation's Premier Public Universities" found that flagships overall served disproportionately fewer low-income and minority students in 2004 than in 1992.

"We really wanted to use flagships as a way to highlight the magnitude of the problem," said Danette Gerald, senior research associate for the Education Trust and co-author of the report.

"We thought that by grading them on measures they are not typically held accountable for it would shine a light on these inequities," she said. "These are issues that Americans care a lot about — fairness and effectiveness."

Each university was graded on the access it provided to minority and low-income students, graduation rates for those students and progress made from 1992 to 2004 on both fronts. In addition to looking at graduation rates and minority enrollment, the report also examined the number of students who received federal Pell grants in each state compared with the number who enrolled at the flagship institutions.

Administrators at UH-Manoa said income and racial diversity are important to the university.

"Just in general, we're really proud of the diversity of our campus," said Neal Smatresk, vice chancellor for academic affairs.

The authors did not include Asians in their minority category, since Asians are not considered under-represented at institutions of higher learning.

As a result, UH-Manoa received a D for its minority enrollment, which counted only African-American, Latino and Native American freshmen. At Manoa, overall African-American enrollment is about 1.1 percent, Hispanic enrollment is 2.2 percent and Native American is 0.3 percent.

The minority category in the report also does not include Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders, two groups the university is focusing its efforts on.

"That might be another factor in access for the region we serve," Smatresk said.

DEBATE ON TUITION HIKE

Since it looked at data from 2004, the report did not take into account tuition increases that are expected to more than double the cost of a year of undergraduate tuition at UH-Manoa by 2011. Tuition at the Manoa campus for the 2007-08 academic year will be $5,136 a year.

Those tuition increases will be cushioned by better financial aid packages for needy students, Smatresk said.

"Our tuition is a bargain and we're still one of the least expensive schools in the country to go to," he said. "In addition to that, we've really ramped up our financial aid program."

The university said it will commit 7.5 percent of its tuition budget to need-based financial aid, which will mean an extra $3 million from four years ago, he said.

However, some students will still fall through the cracks.

Keikilani Meyer, interim director of Alu Like's Native Hawaiian Library, said that tuition increases forced her to abandon her graduate studies.

"I'm not attending school right now because the tuition is too high," she said.

While the Education Trust report did not count Hawaiians, Meyer said that the percentage of Hawaiian students at UH-Manoa is actually on the rise.

This year, Hawaiians made up 12.6 percent of the student body, crossing the 10 percent threshold that makes the university eligible for federal funding to help improve undergraduate retention rates.

"This is the first year that we actually hit it," said Meyer, who said the university is now working on applying for a grant.

Meyer said it's still too early to see how the tuition increases will affect minority and low-income populations.

If the university was really committed to serving more Hawaiians, it would give them all waivers to offset the tuition increases, she said.

The university has actually scaled back on tuition waivers in favor of scholarships that can pay for books, room and board, in addition to tuition, said financial aid director Linda Clemons.

"It's being implemented to help assist students with the moderate fee increase we'll be having over the next few years," she said.

Whereas the university was offering about $5.3 million in waivers, it will now offer at least $5.8 million in need-based scholarships next academic year. The scholarships are part of more than $93 million available to help students finance their education, she said.

Clemons said that UH-Manoa's tuition remains competitive with other universities. Tuition at UH is less than that at two of the three other universities that ranked high in the study, as well as significantly lower than the University of Virginia, the University of Indiana and the University of California-Berkeley.

Hawai'i received an A for its access to low-income students and an A for its graduation rate of minority students.

Smatresk said that despite the high grade, the university still needs to boost its retention rate.

"We feel that we have room to improve in graduation rates and we're working very hard to retain the students that come to us freshman year," he said.

The report considered flagship universities in all 50 states. Overall, its findings were bleak.

LOPSIDED FINANCIAL AID

When it comes to financial aid, the report faulted the institutions for giving too much to students whose family incomes are $100,000 or more and not enough to students from families earning less than $20,000 a year.

"These flagships have virtually unfettered discretion to decide which students will benefit from tuition assistance and how much they receive," said Gerald, the report co-author.

For example, the report says that in 1995, these public universities gave $50 million in financial aid to students from high-income families. That jumped to $257 million in 2003, when the institutions gave $171 million in tuition assistance to students from families earning less than $20,000 a year.

When it comes to access, the report says there are many more students — especially low-income students — who meet the grade point and test score requirements to enroll at these flagship universities than are actually enrolling.

"The conclusion is that either they are not going to college at all or they are going to less-selective institutions," Gerald said. "As public institutions, the flagships need to be held accountable for how well and how equitably they are serving the students in their state."

The Education Trust is funded by 11 foundations, including the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Reach Treena Shapiro at tshapiro@honoluluadvertiser.com.