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Projects

University of Hawai’i Systems and Structure Study

Summary

The University of Hawaiʻi System serves all the Hawaiian islands and includes community colleges, a regional four-year institution, a doctoral university, and a research-extensive university. The System serves both urban areas and isolated islands, some of which do not have full college campuses. All of the islands have populated spaces that are remote from campus, either due to distance, geographic features, or limited roadways. System leaders contracted with NCHEMS to help identify potential options for the system’s organizational structure that would allow it to meet the diverse needs of its students, effectively carry out its multiple different educational missions, and contribute to Hawaiʻi’s workforce. NCHEMS considered these questions in the context of several changes impacting the System. The long-serving System president was planning to retire, and institutions experienced significant enrollment changes both before and during the pandemic, which included an overall decline in students as well as a movement to online enrollment. The questions included: What roles should the different institutions play? Should they be organized differently? How can the System best meet the educational needs of all Hawaiians into the future? NCHEMS final report will serve as a resource for the System’s newly appointed president.

Topics Challenges Approach Impacts

Topics

System Governance and Structure
One primary task of this project was to think through the System’s organizational chart, and how the relationships between the institutions and each other and various layers of administration impacted the system’s function.

Additionally, this project required imagination. We were asked to project how the UH system can be best positioned to serve the future needs of Hawaiʻi residents and their state.

Challenges

Although meeting the educational needs of rural students is a challenge across the country — and one that NCHEMS regularly considers — this is particularly acute in a state where institutions and students are physically separated by stretches of ocean and ribbons of mountains reaching all the way to the sea, which impede transportation.

The broad scope of the University of Hawaiʻi system is also a challenge. Because the System includes multiple types of institutions — two research universities with different histories and missions, a regional four-year institution with a strength in online programs, and seven unique community colleges — and is the only public higher education option for thousands of miles, its mission is necessarily comprehensive and diverse.

Approach

NCHEMS approached this work through a combination of stakeholder engagement and data analysis.

We visited all 10 of the institutions in the UH system, as well as some additional branch locations. We sought to understand each location’s unique features and challenges and how the System can best support each institution, its students, and its community.
We also examined data on each of the system’s 10 institutions, with a particular focus on areas of coordination or separation. Which students are being served poorly? To what extent are the institutions collaborating, and what are the limits? How do students access different academic programs from various locations around the state?

Impacts

This project will serve as a resource for the System’s newly appointed president.