Hawaiʻi Island Colleges Rank No. 1 in Nation for Diversity

Students participating in the UH Hilo Freshman Experience Program. Courtesy photo: UH.

The University of Hawaii at Hilo and Hawaiʻi Community College are the most diverse four- and two-year public education institutions in the nation, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education’s 2018 Almanac diversity rankings.

The report shows UH Hilo students identify as being 20.6% Asian, 9.6% Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, 20.2% white and 31.2% of two or more races.

Hawaiʻi CC students reported themselves to be 18% Asian, 8% Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, 13.8% white and 42.6% are two or more races.

All UH campuses ranked among the top 10 in the U.S. for racial and ethnic diversity among four-year and two-year institutions, according to the report. UH Maui College ranked third, UH West Oʻahu fourth and UH Mānoa sixth.

UH Community Colleges ranked as the top six most diverse two-year public institutions in the nation. Hawaiʻi CC was followed by Windward CC, Kauaʻi CC, Leeward CC, Honolulu CC and Kapiʻolani CC.

The rankings were determined using a diversity index scale of 1 to 100, indicating the probability of any two students being of different races or ethnicities.

The top 10 most diverse public four-year institutions in the nation, as reported by the Chronicle of Higher Education’s 2018 index rankings, are as follows (one indicates low probability and 100 a high probability):

1. UH Hilo, 88.9
2. Oklahoma State University Institute of Technology at Okmulgee, 87.1
3. UH Maui College, 86.5
4. UH West Oʻahu, 84.5
5. Highline College, 81.9
6. UH Mānoa, 81.6
7. California State University, East Bay, 79.3
8. Rutgers University-Newark, 78.9
9. New Jersey Institute of Technology, 78.5
10. Seattle Central College, 78.0

These are the top 10 most diverse public two-year colleges and their corresponding diversity indexes:

1. Hawaiʻi CC, 91.9
2. Windward CC, 91.5
3. Kauaʻi CC, 87.2
4. Leeward CC, 83.3
5. Honolulu CC, 79.6
6. Kapiʻolani CC, 79.0
7. Montgomery College, 78.4
8. Berkeley City College, 78.3
9. Bunker Hill Community College, 78.2
10. Solano Community College, 78.2