Enrollment at the University of Hawaii at Hilo and Hawaii Community College is down again this fall, though HCC’s Palamanui extension campus in Kailua-Kona saw a slight increase.
Enrollment at the University of Hawaii at Hilo and Hawaii Community College is down again this fall, though HCC’s Palamanui extension campus in Kailua-Kona saw a slight increase.
Final enrollment figures for fall 2017 show there are 3,539 UH-Hilo students this semester, down 3.5 percent from fall 2016. At HCC, there are 2,819 students overall, down 4.6 percent from last fall.
HCC-Palamanui has 526 students enrolled this semester, up from 504 in fall 2016 and 461 in fall 2015, the first year the new campus opened.
“We have just seen tremendous growth in West Hawaii,” HCC Chancellor Rachel Solemsaas said Monday. “It just proves there’s demand on the west side of the island. In terms of our strategy, we want to focus on program expansion in that area to get us to the capacity we need to meet and what we’re seeing in terms of continual enrollment growth on that side of the island.”
Enrollment has dropped at the two Hilo campuses — along with most other campuses in the UH system — each year for several years. UH-Hilo’s student population has declined since 2012, when it peaked at 4,157 students after several years of growth.
At HCC, enrollment has similarly dropped each year after peaking at 3,917 students in 2011.
UH-Hilo ramped up efforts in recent years to attract more first-time freshmen and improve student retention. At least part of those efforts appear to be paying off. The number of UH-Hilo first-time freshmen actually increased to 415 this year, up from 369 in fall 2016 and the first increase among first-time freshmen since 2013.
The bulk of this year’s decline was continuing students, though the number of transfer and returning students also slightly dropped. Returning students are those who took at least a semester off. Continuing students are those who attended UH-Hilo last semester.
UH-Hilo’s retention rate among first-time, full-time freshmen was just more than 68 percent, down from 70.3 percent last year but up from 63.2 percent in fall 2015.
Farrah-Marie Gomes, UH-Hilo vice chancellor for student affairs, said a small percentage of continuing students are exchange students who don’t intend to stay, but the campus plans to “take a closer look” at its number of continuing students.
At HCC, retention among first-time, full-time students was 60.9 percent, compared with 61.5 percent last year and 56.2 percent the year prior.
Solemsaas said the improving economy caused part of HCC’s overall decline, and the student population remains higher than pre-Great Recession levels. She said she still wants to see numbers improve.
“As far as continuing students, we know at HCC we’ve got to do better,” Solemsaas said. “We’re higher than the state average … but we know we can do better. Because to me there are still (a percentage) of students who somehow are not coming back, and we need to understand why.”
Email Kirsten Johnson at kjohnson@hawaiitribune-herald.com.