UH Board of Regents approves tuition freezes, cuts

HONOLULU, Hawaii (HawaiiNewsNow) - In a bid to reverse enrollment declines, the University of Hawaii will freeze tuition for undergraduates for three years and cut graduate tuition rates.

The Board of Regents voted to approve the plan Thursday.

UH President David Lassner pitched a more aggressive tuition cutting plan earlier this year, but regents rejected it.

The plan approved Thursday calls for:

Freezing undergraduate tuition at 2019-20 levels for the next three years.
Cutting resident graduate tuition at UH-Manoa by 2%.
Cutting non-resident graduate tuition at UH-Manoa by 10%.
Freezing residents and non-resident graduate tuition at UH-Manoa from 2021 to 2023.

School officials say the plan is meant to keep higher education accessible and affordable amid enrollment declines.

University administrators have also noted that graduate tuition at UH-Manoa is now higher than peer institutions on the mainland.

Under the new plan, full-time undergraduate tuition for residents at UH-Manoa will be $5,652 a semester through 2023, while non-resident tuition will be $16,668.

Full-time graduate tuition for residents at UH-Manoa will be $7,956 in the 2019-20 school year, while non-resident graduates will pay $18,696.