The University of Hawaii’s "15 to Finish" initiative has become a national model since it launched in 2011, inspiring colleges in 20 states to adopt similar programs that encourage students to carry enough credits each semester to graduate in four years.

This push makes sense, from academic and economic standpoints, but will succeed in the long term only if state funding for Hawaii’s public university system is substantial enough that the classes undergraduates need are available when they need them. Cutting graduate-student teaching positions could impair this effort and must be avoided, not just for the rest of this school year, as UH administrators have promised, but moving forward.

According to the most recent data from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), only 19 percent of first-time, full-time freshmen at UH’s flagship Manoa campus go on to graduate in four years, far below the 31.3 percent rate for public universities nationally.

This dismal showing helped spur the "15 to Finish" program and the evidence so far is promising. More than 55 percent of freshmen at UH’s four-year campuses — Manoa, Hilo and West Oahu — registered for courses totaling at least 15 credits last fall. That’s up substantially from the 38 percent who did so in 2011.

UH administrators emphasize that by graduating in four years, well-educated, highly skilled employees will enter the workforce more quickly and help power Hawaii’s economy. But the core worth of this program is that it can propel students to graduate from college at all. UH’s dismal four-year graduation rate is only part of the story, after all. The NCES shows that 56 percent of entering freshmen earn a bachelor’s degree after six years, at UH-Manoa and nationally; it’s urgent that we get the other 44 percent on track to earn a degree, rather than languishing for years taking just a few classes or dropping out altogether.

A UH analysis found that students who carry 15 or more credits a semester had higher grade point averages and were more likely to enroll the subsequent semester than students who carried fewer credits; prior to this program, 12 credits a semester was the norm. Other research shows that students who carry 15 credits a semester are less likely to drop out or to have high student-loan debt.

UH’s comprehensive strategy, billed as the first in the nation, supports the goal-oriented mindset of full-time students by increasing the availability of undergraduate classes and providing more need-based financial aid. Both factors are essential: Students may have to work less in order to go to school more, and both the students and the taxpayers deserve an efficient allocation of resources.

Reducing the overall cost of college for students and their families is one of the benefits of graduating on time. The sticker price of tuition, fees and other expenses runs $23,000 a year at UH-Manoa for an in-state student who lives in a dorm and $12,544 for one who lives at home, according to the NCES. Maximizing this annual investment makes sense, and increasing faculty and students’ expectations about what constitutes a full course load is key.

The ultimate success of "15 to Finish" depends, of course, on freshmen entering college ready for a more challenging academic environment. This program, then, demands that Hawaii’s public K-12 school system also rises to the challenge, producing graduates capable of completing — not just registering for — 15 units a semester. The proof will be in UH’s future graduation rates.