Isle colleges see
rise in enrollmentThe increase puts a squeeze
on UH-Manoa while Chaminade
and HPU relish 6% gains
College enrollment is up across the state, a trend officials expect to continue.
The University of Hawaii and the state's three largest private colleges -- Hawaii Pacific University, Brigham Young University and Chaminade University -- have seen spikes in enrollment during the past decade and expect to either meet or exceed projected enrollment for the coming fall semester.
Fall enrollment at UH-Manoa is expected to hit its highest level since the early 1970s, when enrollment reached 22,300.
Officials say preliminary figures suggest that enrollment is up by 5 percent over this time last year, based on student applications received so far. More than 21,000 students are planning to attend Manoa in the fall. In 1993, 20,037 students were enrolled at Manoa.
The increase in student enrollment is more than the administration had counted on, said Jan Heu, interim director of admissions and records at UH. Dormitory and classroom space is tight already, and more students mean more strain on the infrastructure.
"We don't have the infrastructure right now," Heu said. "I'm afraid we can't sustain that kind of growth."
Heu said the sharp increase in enrollment at UH can likely be attributed to the low cost of tuition and the high quality of education, more courses being offered that satisfy the general education requirement, and a recently implemented system that makes transferring from UH community colleges to the Manoa campus easier.
Officials say they will be looking at ways to channel first- and second-year students to UH system community colleges to decrease numbers at Manoa.
Hawaii Pacific University is also expecting a surge in student enrollment this fall, but officials say they are ready to accommodate the increase.
Enrollment at HPU, which has students from 112 countries, has risen 30 percent over the past 10 years.
Applications to the college are up nearly 15 percent, and registration is up nearly 6 percent over the same time last year. According to President Chatt Wright, the increase could add up to 500 students to HPU's student body of 8,000 when classes begin in August.
"We look forward to our largest enrollment ever," Wright said.
The university can accommodate the increase in students while still meeting its goal of only having 25 to 28 students per class, he said.
The increase in HPU students registering for the fall is coming mostly from Hawaii and the mainland, a new trend that can be attributed to a vigorous marketing strategy that began after Sept. 11, 2001, to counter a drop in foreign enrollment, especially from students from countries with large Islamic populations such as India, Pakistan, Indonesia and Malaysia.
Chaminade University and Brigham Young University-Hawaii anticipate good enrollments this fall.
Enrollment at BYU-Hawaii has increased 14 percent since 1994 when 2,100 students were enrolled; the projected enrollment for this fall is 2,400.
Chaminade, based on tuition deposit figures, expects a 6 percent increase in enrollment over last year. In 2003, 1,065 undergraduates were enrolled, and that number is expected to increase to about 1,130 this fall. The Catholic school has seen a 75 percent increase in undergraduate enrollment since 1995.