University of Hawai’i Extends Community College Tuition Freeze

• The University of Hawai'i Board of Regents voted to keep tuition frozen at the system's seven community colleges for four years.
• Tuition at the system's four-year colleges will remain frozen for the next two years before increasing by 2% in the 2025-2026 and 2026-2027 academic years.
• The sole exception to the frozen graduate student tuition rate is at the UH Mānoa William S. Richardson School of Law, where tuition will increase by 2% for three years beginning in the 2024-2025 academic year.

A tuition freeze for University of Hawai'i (UH) community colleges will remain in place for the next four years, although the system's four-year campuses will see an eventual increase.

The University of Hawai'i Board of Regents decided last week to keep an existing tuition freeze in place through spring 2027 for its seven community colleges, as well as for graduate students, according to a press release. Tuition is currently $1,572 per semester at the system's community colleges, based on $131 per credit with 12 credits being considered full time.

Although community college tuition will be held steady, the board of regents approved increasing tuition at its four-year campuses — the first tuition increase since 2016, according to the release.

Resident tuition at four-year colleges will be frozen for the next two academic years before seeing a 2% increase at UH Hilo, UH Mānoa, and UH West O'ahu during the 2025-2026 and 2026-2027 academic years, according to the release. Nonresident undergraduate tuition rates at those campuses will increase "by the equivalent dollar amount" for those years.

Board Chair Randy Moore said tuition "is the most challenging subject" the board has to tackle, due to trying to balance affordability with the school's budget.

"We are always trying to find a balance between how much can be afforded while also trying to keep up with the resources that we need to provide a quality education," Moore said in the release. "We attempted to do that by keeping the freeze on the community college tuition while approving a modest increase in the tuition at the four-year campuses."

The sole exception to the frozen graduate student tuition rate is at the UH Mānoa William S. Richardson School of Law, where tuition will increase by 2% for three years beginning in the 2024-2025 academic year.

The board voted 9-1 to approve the tuition increases at its Jan. 19 meeting, with the one vote against the measure coming from interim-student Regent Abigail Mawae, according to the release.

"I think that my concern is that the small increase, as it is 2%, is that it will be again 2% and that while it is small now what would that look like going forward," Mawae said in the release. "I am a little worried about that."

Colleges across the country have taken varied measures to offset tuition increases amid growing inflation.

Virginia Tech, for instance, opted to increase tuition for the 2022-2023 academic year last summer but created a scholarship for in-state students to offset that cost, BestColleges previously reported.

BestColleges also previously reported that the Hawai'i Promise, a last-dollar scholarship program, covers tuition at a University of Hawai'i community college for students who qualify for in-state tuition and demonstrate financial need by completing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). That program covers more than just tuition. It also covers books, fees, supplies, and transportation.