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Enrollment at University of Hawaiʻi–West Oʻahu experienced a significant increase in the spring 2013 semester—a 21 percent jump compared to spring 2012.

“The numbers just keep going,” said Linda Johnsrud, UH’s executive vice president for academic affairs/provost. “They are on their way to probably 3,000 which was the aim for that campus in the short run. It will be bigger than that in the long run.”

UH West Oʻahu now has 344 more students for a total enrollment of 1,937. The college’s new campus opened in the fall of 2012.

“We knew eight years ago that the growth was all out towards Ewa, Waiʻanae, North Shore, and we simply weren’t serving those geographical areas as we should have and now we have a campus to do that,” said Johnsrud.

Overall, enrollment across the 10 campuses of the UH system is down by 2.3 percent. University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s enrollment is at 19,073, a decrease of less than half percent. The number of students attending UH’s seven community colleges fell by 4.6 percent, from 31,925 students to 30,462.

“I think we could attribute that to the uptick in the economy,” explained Johnsrud. “Students came in, they got the short-term training for what they needed and they’re back out in the workforce.”

Hawaiʻi Community College in Hilo saw the biggest drop, a 9 percent decrease. Kauaʻi Community College had the only increase out of the community colleges, a 3 percent gain. Overall, there are more than 55,000 students enrolled at UH’s 10 campuses and that does not include the 15,000 registrations in non-credit programs.

Read the UH news release for more information.

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