The University of Hawai?i at Manoa is a premier research university of international standing. Manoa is the flagship of the University of Hawai?i System, the state’s sole public university system governed by a 12-member Board of Regents. A land-grant, sea-grant, and space-grant institution, Manoa creates, refines, disseminates, and perpetuates human knowledge; offers a comprehensive array of undergraduate, graduate, and professional degrees through the doctoral level; carries out advanced research; and extends services to the community.
Located in Manoa Valley on the island of O?ahu, our university was founded in 1907 under the auspices of the Morrill Act as a land-grant college of agriculture and mechanic arts. With the addition of a College of Arts and Sciences in 1920, the college became the University of Hawai?i, and in 1972, it became the University of Hawai?i at Manoa to distinguish it from the other units in the growing UH system.
Today more than 20,400 students are enrolled in Manoa courses, on campus or via distance delivery. Classified as a Carnegie Doctoral/Research University-Extensive institution, Manoa offers 87 bachelor’s degrees, 87 master’s degrees, and 53 doctorates. We also offer first professional degrees in law, medicine, and architecture. Approximately 65 percent of Manoa students are undergraduates, 57 percent are of Asian or Pacific Islander ancestry, and 56 percent are women.
Manoa’s special distinction is found in its Hawaiian, Asian, and Pacific orientation and unique location. Together, these foster advantages in tropical agriculture, tropical medicine, oceanography, astronomy, electrical engineering, volcanology, evolutionary biology, comparative philosophy, urban planning and international trade. Manoa also offers instruction in more Asia-Pacific languages than any other U.S. institution of higher learning. As a result, students are provided special opportunities for research, service learning, and co-curricular activities in Asian, Pacific, and Hawaiian studies. The beauty of the verdant Manoa valley provides a backdrop for a unique, yet inviting, campus. Hawaiian, Asian, and Pacific traditions are well represented throughout the campus. There is an authentic Japanese tea house and garden, a replica of a Korean king’s throne hall, and a Hawaiian taro patch. Off-campus facilities include the Lyon Arboretum, the Waikiki Aquarium, several marine facilities, and the world famous telescopes atop Mauna Kea.
University of Hawaii at Manoa