University of Hawaii at Manoa SPAS: About Us

What is SPAS?

Founded in 1986, as the School of Hawaiian, Asian and Pacific Studies, on July 1, 2007, Hawaiian Studies split off and became Hawaiinuiakea, the School of Hawaiian Knowledge. At that time SHAPS became the School of Pacific and Asian Studies. However, its mission remains unchanged and may be stated in four broad objectives:

to coordinate resources in Asian and Pacific studies throughout the University
to support faculty and student development, instruction, research and publication in Asian and Pacific studies
to promote the University's resources in Asian and Pacific studies
to serve the educational and cultural interests of the people of the State of Hawai'i by promoting a deeper understanding of our Asian and Pacific heritage

To carry out this mission, SPAS is composed of 2 degree-granting units and 7 area centers. One of the degree-granting units is also an area center -- Center for Pacific Islands Studies (CPIS). It also includes the legislatively mandated Committee for the Preservation and Study of Hawaiian Language, Art and Culture.

Instructional Units

Asian Studies Program: B.A. and M.A degrees. There is no PhD.
Center Pacific Islands Studies: M.A. degree only. A B.A. in Pacific Islands Studies may be obtained through the Arts & Sciences' Interdisciplinary Studies Program.

Area centers

The area centers are Chinese Studies, Japanese Studies, Korean Studies, Pacific Islands Studies, Philippine Studies, South Asian Studies, Southeast Asian Studies.

Centers are not:

instructional units, ie., they do not grant degrees, except CPIS.
research units.

Area centers do:

raise money.
serve as a focal point for scholars in all departments on campus with an interest in a particular geographic area.
hold weekly, biweekly, monthly public seminars/meetings/colloquia which feature a research/resource speaker.
finance research, travel for all Manoa faculty interested in their geographic area.
award scholarships and fellowships to all Manoa students interested in their area.
help with student exchanges.
administer or facilitate overseas language programs for students.
sponsor academic conferences, meetings, etc.
act as student advisers for the Asian Studies' students.
facilitate student selection of courses by maintaining lists of courses concerning their area offered by all departments and schools on campus.
promote outreach to the community, public schools and other organizations.
support library special collections.
publish newsletters, occasional papers, papers, journals, books.
provide unique resources to the education community. (CPIS database of films of the Pacific; CSEAS picture archive)
contribute money for prizes for student papers at the SPAS Graduate Student Conference.

The Centers for Chinese, Japanese and Korean studies have joined together to form the East Asia Council (EAC), whose mission is to 1) direct the EA component of university-wide degree programs, 2) coordinate the acquisition and use of resources, and 3) develop transnational EA projects and proposals. The Council administers the NRC-East Asia (NRCEA).

The resources that the EAC oversees include 128 faculty and 337 EA courses across 21 academic units and 8 professional programs/schools. Of these, 125 are language courses, and enroll about 3,200 students each year. The EAC is also a partner in developing library resources. The Asia Collection is one of the nation's strongest for EA material, particularly in Southeast China, Taiwan, the Ryukyus, Hokkaido, and 20th c. Korea. UH's location in a state with a population of 33% EA ancestry makes outreach a priority.

A short page of some highlights for the last two or so years may be found here

National ranking

Since area centers are not instructional programs, they are not ranked in any national rating system. However, there is an indirect way to measure their quality.

Every 3 years area centers at US universities compete for National Resource Center awards from the US Department of Education. There are several categories. UHM competes in East Asian Studies (The centers for Chinese, Japanese and Korean studies join together in a single proposal via the East Asia Council.), Southeast Asian Studies (here the centers for Southeast Asian and Philippine studies join together) and Pacific Islands Studies. In the 2003-06 cycle, Hawaii was one of 7 awarded for Southeast Asia. Three anonymous reviewers all ranked the Center as Very Good. It received a score of Outstanding (the highest) for its outreach efforts.

These awards are not guaranteed. The UHM centers for China, Japan and Korea lost their East Asia award for two grant cycles. 1994-96 and 1997-99.

Extra-mural funding

The following is based on ORS Reports. www.hawaii.edu/ors/ See the 'Reports' -> 'History of Awards for a Department'.

FY	Awards
1990	677,836
1991	952,536
1992	784,306
1993	1,677,993
1994	1,133,072
1995	873,185
1996	561,810
1997	1,076,520
1998	614,896
1999	1,241,597

FY	Awards
2000	1,513,721
2001	1,517,378
2002	1,913,021
2003	3,153,536
2004	2,591,312
2005	2,076,339
2006	38,260

Faculty

Asian Studies: 9. In addition, two or three specialists may teach.

Hawaiian Studies: 7. In addition, there are 3 instructors.

Pacific Islands Studies: 4.

Students

Number of Majors Registered in the Fall, 1986-
	SHAPS				Asian Studies				Hawaiian Studies			Pacific Islands Studies
Year	Total	Lower	Upper	Grad	Total	Lower	Upper	Grad	Total	Lower	Upper	Total	Grad
1986	96	-	43	53	65	-	26	39	17	-	17	14	14
1987	97	-	40	57	67	-	24	43	16	-	16	14	14
1988	119	5	40	74	90	5	27	58	13	-	13	16	16
1989	158	15	62	81	119	13	43	63	21	2	19	18	18
1990	179	16	89	74	125	11	59	55	35	5	30	19	19
1991	239	28	104	107	153	15	57	81	60	13	47	26	26
1992	250	28	117	105	156	14	63	79	68	14	54	26	26
1993	266	25	134	107	156	7	69	80	83	18	65	27	27
1994	264	34	147	83	142	11	73	58	97	23	74	25	25
1995	280	31	160	89	159	13	77	69	101	18	83	20	20
1996	252	27	149	76	126	9	67	50	100	18	82	26	26
1997	272	26	167	79	134	8	76	50	109	18	91	29	29
1998	277	25	166	86	139	7	72	60	112	18	94	26	26
1999	276	29	151	96	142	14	64	64	102	15	87	32	32
2000	227	30	106	91	117	11	46	60	79	19	60	31	31
2001	215	25	103	87	121	17	45	59	66	8	58	28	28
2002	222	28	90	104	126	19	37	70	62	9	53	34	34
2003	236	44	94	98	132	28	41	63	69	16	53	35	35
2004	258	63	91	104	142	34	38	70	82	29	53	34	34
Source: Head Count Enrollment by Major, UHM, Fall ????

Degrees Awarded

The FY in Hawaii is July 1 to June 30.

Degrees Awarded in SHAPS, FY 1985/86 --
	SHAPS			Asian Studies			Hawaiian Studies	Pacific Islands Studies
FY	Total	BA	MA	Total	BA	MA	BA	MA
1985-86	28	17	11	17	11	6	6	5
1986-87	39	24	15	24	16	8	8	7
1987-88	34	23	11	27	16	11	7	-
1988-89	40	17	23	29	10	19	7	4
1989-90	33	17	16	24	12	12	5	4
1990-91	50	28	22	40	20	20	8	2
1991-92	53	27	26	45	22	23	5	3
1992-93	66	33	33	48	20	28	13	5
1993-94	81	43	38	57	25	32	18	6
1994-95	87	61	26	55	38	17	23	9
1995-96	77	56	21	50	30	20	26	1
1996-97	83	56	27	51	26	25	30	2
1997-98	91	70	21	53	38	15	32	6
1998-99	86	64	22	49	32	17	32	5
1999-00	101	68	33	58	33	25	35	8
2000-01	68	45	23	43	23	20	22	3
2001-02	70	43	27	41	19	22	24	5
2002-03	53	30	23	31	13	18	17	5
2003-04	63	39	24	35	16	19	23	5
Source: Degrees and Certificates Earned, UHM, FY ????

Enrollment

Students Registered in SHAPS Classes, Fall 1996-
	SHAPS				Asian Studies				HAPS		Hawaiian Studies			Pacific Islands Studies
Year	Total	Lower	Upper	Grad	Total	Lower	Upper	Grad	Total	Lower	Total	Lower	Upper	Total	Upper	Grad
1996	624	211	309	104	248	23	161	64	-	-	303	188	115	73	33	40
1997	708	284	307	117	244	41	129	74	-	-	383	243	140	81	38	43
1998	604	273	232	99	229	43	114	72	-	-	323	230	93	52	25	27
1999	759	361	256	142	267	43	129	95	-	-	417	318	99	75	28	47
2000	702	334	223	145	246	38	104	104	-	-	399	296	103	57	16	41
2001	809	416	289	104	232	43	122	67	-	-	518	373	145	59	22	37
2002	1033	555	372	106	330	50	204	76	2	2	616	503	113	85	55	30
2003	1660	1076	455	129	343	52	213	78	18	18	1200	1006	194	99	48	51
2004	1930	1305	465	160	375	58	212	105	22	22	1417	1225	192	116	61	55
Source: Course Registration Report, Manoa, Fall ????

Student Enrollment in SHAPS Classes, Fall 1992-
(Unit: student semester hours)
	SHAPS				Asian Studies				Hawaiian Studies			Pacific Islands Studies
Year	Total	Lower	Upper	Grad	Total	Lower	Upper	Grad	Total	Lower	Upper	Total	Upper	Grad
1992	1373	333	548	492	694	-	302	392	519	333	186	160	60	100
1993	1509	510	703	296	703	-	475	228	699	510	189	107	39	68
1994	2085	873	884	328	865	150	483	232	1085	723	362	135	39	96
1995	2412	981	1030	401	881	-	583	298	1341	981	360	190	87	103
1996	1835	633	917	285	752	69	493	190	889	564	325	194	99	95
1997	2067	852	875	340	724	123	342	218	1107	729	378	236	114	122
1998	1756	763	695	298	687	129	383	216	913	634	279	156	74	82
1999	2200	1049	768	383	777	129	387	261	1217	920	297	206	84	122
2000	2001	960	643	398	703	114	312	277	1132	846	286	166	45	121
2001	2326	1200	847	279	674	129	365	180	1487	1071	416	165	66	99
2002	3030	1642	1105	283	957	150	598	209	1821	1479	342	239	165	74
2003	5091	3356	1362	373	985	156	617	212	3603	3000	603	303	142	161
2004	5904	4060	1375	469	1067	174	588	305	4312	3706	606	345	181	164
Source: Course Registration Report, UHM, Fall ????