UH Assesses its Programs, Services and Campuses in "Measuring Our Progress"

2004 report now available online

University of Hawaiʻi
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Posted: Jan 14, 2005

The University of Hawaiʻi continues to provide an affordable and accessible education, students are performing well and earning a diversity of degrees, and the state of Hawaiʻi is receiving an economic boost from university research. This is the message from the university‘s biennium assessment report, "Measuring Our Progress," now available online for public review.

"Measuring Our Progress honors our commitment to be accountable to the people of Hawaiʻi," said UH Interim President David McClain. "With the leadership of the Board of Regents, and together with members of the Executive Branch, the Legislature and our alumni and friends, we will continue to sustain the university‘s mission, transforming our students‘ lives, giving them the ingredients for success, and preparing them to be forces for constructive change in Hawaiʻi‘s society."

The report provides measures of performance, benchmarks, and other indicators of the university‘s efforts to meet goals set forth in its strategic plan. There are five goals of the strategic plan that commit the university to an agenda of measurable improvements: 1) educational effectiveness and student success; 2) a learning, research, and service network; 3) a model local, regional, and global university; 4) investment in faculty, staff, students and their environment; and 5) resources and stewardship.

Current and projected enrollment growth and student performance on national and state professional licensing exams show the university‘s efforts to establish an optimum culture for student entry, retention and success. Since Fall 2000, enrollment has increased 12.9 percent and is projected to reach 56,000 by Fall 2009. In 2002-03, more than 90 percent of UH Mānoa College of Education and UH Hilo education graduates passed the professional knowledge exam portion of the Praxis Teacher Certification Exam.

Measures of affordability, economic impact, information and technology resources and others are also presented to demonstrate the university‘s progress in fostering the intellectual capital of the state of Hawaiʻi. Although the university‘s share of state general funds has gone from 8.8 percent in fiscal year 1997-98 to 8.4 percent in fiscal year 2003-04, which is a five percent decline, UH has received record support for research and training for the sixth year in a row. Extramural funds—grants and contracts from federal, state, private, and foreign sources—reached $330 million for fiscal year 2004, a two percent increase over the previous fiscal year and an increase of 2.3 times the support received 10 years ago.

In addition, almost all UH tuition rates are below the WICHE averages. WICHE (Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education) comprises institutions from 15 western states.

Other measures highlighted in the report include student participation in Hawaiian language and cultural studies and efforts to internationalize the campus experience, investment in faculty and staff, investment in the physical plant, and accountability in the management of resources to demonstrate the university‘s commitment to manage its resources in service to the state and its citizens.

A complete report entitled Measuring Our Progress, 2004 Update can be found online at www.hawaii.edu/ovppp/mop/.

For more information, visit: http://www.hawaii.edu/ovppp/mop/