The University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa is holding a public hearing today on a proposed four-year tuition schedule that would freeze undergraduate rates for two years before triggering back-to-back 5% increases through academic year 2030–31. The hearing at Bachman Hall begins at 11:30 a.m. and runs until 1 p.m., giving students, parents and staff a chance to weigh in before the university finalizes a plan that would reshape what Hawaiʻi families pay for college through the end of the decade.
The proposal, which covers academic years 2027–28 through 2030–31, would keep undergraduate tuition unchanged at all 10 UH campuses for the first two years before increases begin in academic year 2029–30, according to University of Hawaiʻi System News. The increases would apply across undergraduate, graduate and professional tuition rates, the university says. At UH Mānoa specifically, resident undergraduate tuition would hold steady through academic year 2028–29, then rise 5% in 2029–30 and another 5% in 2030–31 — pushing annual tuition from $11,760 to $12,360, and then to $12,984 by the schedule's final year.
A Decade of Flat Tuition Meets Rising Costs
University officials frame the increases as a response to years of stagnant pricing. UH tuition has remained relatively flat for a decade while operating costs have continued to rise, according to howzitkohala.com. That same report notes that full-time undergraduates at UH's four-year campuses pay a flat tuition rate once they enroll in 12 credits per semester, with any additional credits costing nothing extra — a structure that remains unchanged under the new proposal.
Not every campus faces the same math, however, and the reporting on the exact scope of the increase diverges. Hawaii News Now has reported that the university is proposing a 5% tuition increase across all 10 campuses beginning in academic year 2029–30. But the university's own published schedule lists UH Hilo's resident undergraduate tuition rising by just 3% that year, from $7,632 to $7,872 annually, with a further increase to $8,112 in 2030–31. UH West Oʻahu's resident undergraduate tuition would track the same 3% path and dollar figures as UH Hilo, with nonresident rates there and at Hilo rising by the same percentage as resident tuition.
Community Colleges See Smaller, Delayed Increases
UH's community colleges would see no change in resident lower-division tuition during the first two years of the schedule, then a rise from $131 to $135 per credit in 2029–30 and to $139 per credit in 2030–31. For a student taking 24 credits a year, that works out to tuition climbing from $3,144 today to $3,336 by academic year 2030–31 — a $192 increase over four years. Upper-division community college tuition would increase at the same levels as UH Hilo and UH West Oʻahu, per the university's published schedule.
UH Hilo's graduate and graduate nursing tuition would remain unchanged for all four years of the schedule, one of the proposal's few across-the-board freezes. The university's Daniel K. Inouye College of Pharmacy is a notable exception to the broader freeze pattern: its tuition would rise 5% annually beginning in academic year 2027–28, even during the two years when most other programs see no change. The university says that additional revenue would support accreditation requirements, faculty and staff, research resources, technology, facilities and other operational needs at the pharmacy program.
Summer School and the Public Comment Process
Hawaiʻi resident summer-school tuition, which was reduced in 2025 to match the regular resident rate, would continue at the same rate as resident lower-division tuition under the proposal, including any approved increases. Oral testimony at today's hearing and others in the series is limited to three minutes per testifier, and both oral and written testimony are treated as public information.
The Mānoa session is one of several scheduled across the islands. UH Hilo will hold its own meeting from 10 to 11:30 a.m. on October 14, followed by Kauaʻi Community College on October 15 from 9:30 to 11 a.m., and UH Maui College on October 20 from noon to 1:30 p.m. A summary of the public feedback and any revisions to the plan is expected October 29, with the Board of Regents scheduled to consider the final proposal on November 19. If approved, the new schedule would be filed with the Office of the Lieutenant Governor by December 1 and take effect in fall 2027.
The current tuition schedule, approved in January 2023, froze undergraduate tuition for academic years 2023–24 and 2024–25 before allowing 2% increases in resident rates at UH's three four-year campuses in 2025–26 and 2026–27, with community college tuition frozen for all four of those years. That history offers a rough template for how the university has balanced freezes against incremental hikes — though the current proposal would let the freeze run two years before compounding into steeper, back-to-back 5% increases at several campuses.
