Undergraduate applications at the University of Hawaii at Manoa are up 5 percent from last year, university officials said yesterday.

Part of the increase appears to be students who opted to save money by going to community college for their first two years and are transferring to Manoa to finish their education, said Manoa Associate Vice Chancellor Alan Yang.

Fall enrollment at the flagship Manoa campus had been declining since a tuition increase in 2006. At the same time, community college enrollment has increased significantly.

Transfer applications from community college students are up slightly from last year, Yang said. An internal UH study also suggests transfer students are making up a larger percentage of the undergraduate student body since the tuition increase, he said.

“;Ideally we would want them here (at Manoa) from day one,”; Yang said. But he added, “;certainly anyone would recognize the cost of education is becoming an increasingly important factor in people's (college) decisions.”;

Resident tuition at the community colleges this fall is $79 a credit, compared to $282 per credit at Manoa.

Officials said they have received 12,067 undergraduate applications so far from both incoming freshmen and transfer students, compared to 11,485 applications at this time last year.

The numbers do not include applications for graduate students and the medical and law schools.

Not everyone who applies will attend Manoa, but 4,101 students had paid their tuition deposits as of June 15, a 3 percent increase from the same time last year.

In a written statement, Chancellor Virginia Hinshaw said, “;Having more applications means that more students view UH-Manoa as their 'destination of choice.'”;

The deadline for applications has passed at UH-Manoa, but Yang said the university continues to receive and process late applications.