As the University of Hawai'i system welcomes record numbers of students during the current economic slump, Hawai'i's private universities are seeing a mixed bag on the enrollment front.

Hawai'i Pacific University, the state's largest private university, is projecting its enrollment will be about 2 percent down once its military campuses begin their term in mid-October. HPU has a total enrollment of about 8,200 students.

Meanwhile, Chaminade University of Honolulu, the state's only Catholic university, is reporting its overall enrollment has increased by 5 percent, with enrollment at about 2,800.

Unlike community college campuses in the UH system, where enrollment is up anywhere from 13 percent to 26 percent depending on the school, four-year colleges are not experiencing the same kind of enrollment surge, largely because of the higher costs and the longer time to earn a degree.

"We anticipated this was going to happen," said John Kearns, dean of enrollment management at Hawai'i Pacific University, where enrollment of local students is down by 3 percent.

"We knew the impact would affect local students and what they could afford for college. We knew there would be a migration to community college," he said.

While HPU, which emphasizes global citizenship as its mission, is seeing fewer locals, it has an increased number of students coming from the Mainland and internationally. Both Mainland and international undergraduate enrollment has increased by 8 percent, Kearns said.

Kearns said the university expects its enrollment will turn around next fall, when students who flirted with community colleges or other public universities find those schools are overwhelmed with students. He noted that students, on average, complete their bachelor's degree in four years at HPU.

"HPU hasn't laid off faculty and we haven't cut any class sections. ... What students think is a two-year community college degree or a four-year degree at a public university will turn into a three-year degree or six-year degree because you can't get the courses you need to graduate on time," Kearns said.

Phone calls to Brigham Young University-Hawai'i were not returned.

At Chaminade University of Honolulu, overall enrollment is up, but officials say they are more pleased with the 375 new students on campus this year, which amounts to a 15 percent increase in first-year students and a 16 percent increase in transfer students, said Joy Bouey, dean of enrollment management at Chaminade.

"In this economy, for us to get that number of new students, it was hard work. There were times we thought we weren't going to do it," Bouey said.

Without being specific with numbers, Bouey said the smallest increase in new students was from Hawai'i, while the university received "twice as many" students from California and "three times as many" from other parts of the Mainland.

The biggest decline in enrollment was in Pacific Islands students, mainly from Guam, Micronesia and American Samoa. Chaminade traditionally has relied heavily on enrollment among Pacific Islanders.

"It was very surprising to us," Bouey said.

Compared with previous years, Bouey said students waited to the very last moment to finalize their registration with Chaminade, likely because they were weighing financial aid and scholarship offers from other schools.