General Information
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The University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo, a vibrant, multicultural campus, provides opportunities for higher education on the island of Hawaiʻi, the southernmost and largest island in the Hawaiian archipelago. Founded as the Hawaiʻi Vocational School in 1941 and organized under its present name in 1970, UH Hilo has grown and changed throughout the years to meet the educational needs and aspirations of the community. While the University’s primary focus is undergraduate education, it also offers several graduate degree programs in focused areas and recently has added a doctoral program in Pharmacy which begins in Fall 2007. A total of 3457 students were enrolled in Fall 2005.
UH Hilo’s signal strengths are its small classes, low student/faculty ratio, diverse student body, island “learning laboratory,” a faculty active in research who encourage student participation in their investigations, service to the community, and, perhaps most importantly, the “aloha spirit” that epitomizes UH Hilo’s student-centered approach.
The University is part of the state-supported, ten-campus University of Hawaiʻi system, along with UH Mānoa, UH West Oʻahu, and seven community colleges. Within UH Hilo are the following academic units:
- College of Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resource Management
- College of Arts and Sciences, including Divisions of Humanities, Natural Sciences, and Social Sciences
- College of Business and Economics
- Ka Haka ʻUla O Keʻelikōlani: College of Hawaiian Language
- College of Pharmacy
The chancellor is UH Hilo’s chief executive officer, responsible to the president, who leads the statewide University of Hawaiʻi system. The Board of Regents, appointed by the governor, is the UH system’s governing body.
