Craig T. Kojima / ckojima@starbulletin.com TransPacific Hawaii College in Aina Haina, which has been in Hawaii for 32 years, will close at the end of the year due to a decline in the enrollment of Japanese students.

TransPacific College to close doors

Citing financial instability, TransPacific Hawaii College will close at the end of the year -- three months earlier than previously announced, according to the school's Web site.

But a professor, who asked not to be identified, said there are now about 80 students after the school announced in July that it was shutting down.

The professor said the admissions office has closed and that faculty members are looking for other jobs.

The small two-year college caters mostly to Japanese and other Asian students and specializes in English as a second language and a liberal arts curriculum.

The college has been in Hawaii for 32 years, founded in 1977 as a branch campus of Osaka-based Kansai Gaidai University. The name was changed to TransPacific Hawaii College in 1998.

Numerous calls and e-mails by the Star-Bulletin to administrators were not returned.

The 40,000-foot oceanfront lot on which the college sits is owned by Simpson Manor Inc., a company with a mailing address in Oregon that makes its money off land leases.

The agent for the company, local attorney William Byrns, said it is too early to say what will happen to the property after the school closes.

The campus has 19 classrooms, a student services center, three computer labs, a learning resources lab, a library, offices and student and faculty lounges, according to its Web site.

Tuition is between $35,000 and $40,000 a year, depending on the need for additional English-language courses, according to the school's college guide.

In a notice posted on its Web site last week, TransPacific Hawaii College said it is entirely dependent on tuition for its operation and that there is a decline in the number of Japanese students interested in two-year colleges.

"The amount of applicants has not been sufficient to sustain the college," the notice said.

"Assuming that the decline of the demand for two-year education in Japan will continue, it will be unrealistic to re-establish a financially strong institution. It is after months of deliberations and attempts at making the college financially viable that we came to this difficult decision to close the college."

The college said it is working to assist current students.

In June the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges put the school on "show cause" status, requiring the college to submit a report by Oct. 15 on how it is addressing the commission's concerns. The school said it is prepared to address all the recommendations, except for its finances.