University of Hawaii at Manoa

The University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa (also known as UH Mānoa, the University of Hawaiʻi, or simply UH) is a public co-educational research university, and is the flagship campus of the greater University of Hawaiʻi system. The school is located in Mānoa, an affluent neighborhood of Honolulu, Honolulu County, Hawaiʻi, United States, approximately three miles east and inland from downtown Honolulu and one mile from Ala Moana and Waikiki. The campus occupies the eastern half of the mouth of Mānoa Valley. It is accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges and is governed by the Hawaii State Legislature and a semi-autonomous board of regents, which in turn hires a president to be administrator. The university campus houses the main offices of the University of Hawaiʻi SystemThe University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa was founded in 1907 as a land grant college of agriculture and mechanical arts. A bill by Maui Representative William Coelho introduced March 1, 1907 and signed into law March 23 enabled construction to begin. In 1912 it was renamed the College of Hawaii and moved to its present location. William Kwai Fong Yap petitioned the territorial legislature six years later for university status which led to another renaming to the University of Hawaii in 1920. This is also the founding year of the College of Arts and Sciences.In 1931 the Territorial Normal and Training School was absorbed into the university. It is now the College of Education.Today, the primary facet of the University consists of the four Colleges of Arts and Sciences: Arts and Humanities, Languages Literatures and Linguistics, Natural Sciences, and Social Sciences. The college of agriculture and mechanical arts is now the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources , one of the few agricultural colleges in the United States focused on tropical research. The University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa is also home to two of the most prominent professional schools in the state. The William S. Richardson School of Law and the John A. Burns School of Medicine are the only law and medical schools in Hawaiʻi, respectively. It is also home to the Shidler College of Business which has the only AACSB accredited graduate business program in the state.The Center for Hawaiian Studies provides 'excellence in the pursuit of knowledge concerning the Native people of Hawaii'.Together, the colleges of the university offer bachelor's degrees in 93 fields of study, master's degrees in 84 fields, doctoral degrees in 51 fields, first professional degrees in 5 fields, post-baccalaureate degrees in 3 fields, 28 undergraduate certification programs and 29 graduate certification programs. Total enrollment in 2012 was 20,429 students, 14,402 of which are undergraduates. There are approximately sixteen students per instructor.
With extramural grants and contracts of $436 million in 2012, UH-Mānoa exploded in terms of research related to Hawaii's physical landscape, its people, and their heritage. The landscape facilitates advances in marine biology, oceanography, underwater robotic technology, astronomy, geology and geophysics, agriculture, aquaculture and tropical medicine. Its heritage, the people and its close ties to the Asian and Pacific region create a favorable environment for study and research in the arts, genetics, intercultural relations, linguistics, religion and philosophy.Extramural funding increased from $368 million in FY 2008 to nearly $436 million in FY 2012. Research grants increased from $278 million in FY 2008 to $317 million in FY 2012. Nonresearch awards totaled $119 million in FY 2012. Overall, extramural funding has increased by 18% over the past five years.The National Science Foundation ranks UH Manoa in the top 50 public universities for federal research funding in engineering and science.For the period of July 1, 2012 to June 20, 2013, the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology  received the largest amount of extramural funding among the Manoa units at $92 million. SOEST was followed by the John A. Burns School of Medicine at $57 million, the College of Natural Sciences and the University of Hawai‘i Cancer Center at $24 million, the Institute for Astronomy at $22 million, the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources at $18 million, and the College of Social Sciences and the College of Education at $16 million.Across the University of Hawai‘i system, the majority of research funding comes from the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Defense, the Department of Education, the National Science Foundation, the Department of Commerce, and the National Aeronautics Space Administration (NASA). Local funding comes from Hawaii government agencies, non-profit organizations, health organizations, and business and other interests.The $150-million medical complex in the area of Kaka‘ako opened in the spring of 2005. The facility houses a state-of-the-art biomedical research and education center that attracts significant federal funding and private sector investment in biotechnology and cancer research and development.
UH Mānoa is characterized by a wealth and variety of research projects. Research broadly conceived, is expected of every faculty member at UH Mānoa. Also, according to the Carnegie Foundation, UH Mānoa is an RU/VH very high research activity level research university.In 2013, UH Mānoa was elected to membership in the Association of Pacific Rim Universities, the leading consortium of research universities for the region. APRU represents 45 premier research universities—with a collective 2 million students and 120,000 faculty members—from 16 economies in the most dynamic and diverse region of the world.According to the 2010 report of the Institutional Research Office, a plurality of students at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa are Caucasian making up twenty-five percent of the student body. Japanese Americans represent thirteen percent, native Hawaiians or part native Hawaiians comprise thirteen percent, Filipino Americans represent eight percent, and Chinese Americans make up seven percent of the student body. Twelve percent of the student body are racially mixed. Smaller populations of Pacific Islanders and other ethnic groups make up the remainder.