University of Hawaiʻi System

Founded in 1907, the University of Hawaiʻi System includes 3 universities, 7 community colleges and community-based learning centers across Hawaiʻi. As the state's public system of higher education, UH offers opportunities as unique and diverse as our island home. Hawaiʻi position between east and west, in the middle of the Pacific, creates opportunities for international leadership and influence. The 10 UH campuses and educational centers on six Hawaiian Islands provide opportunities for both learning and recreation. The primary mission of the university is to provide environments in which faculty, staff and students can discover, examine critically, preserve and transmit the knowledge, wisdom, and values that will help ensure the survival of present and future generations with improvement in the quality of life. In carrying out that mission, it is the basic purpose of the university to afford all qualified people of Hawaiʻi an equal opportunity for quality college and university education at both undergraduate and graduate levels. As the only provider of public higher education in Hawaiʻi, the university embraces its unique responsibilities to the indigenous people of Hawaiʻi and to Hawaiʻi’s indigenous language and culture. To fulfill this responsibility, the university ensures active support for the participation of Native Hawaiians at the university and support vigorous programs of study and support for the Hawaiian language, history, and culture. View a timeline of the University of Hawaiʻi and its development over more than a century.